India intro (Pranjal)
“I have never worried about money.”
Those are the words of my dear friend Pranjal, in India. I’d be lying if I said they were my own. But for Pranjal, I believe it’s true. His approach to money is a bit unique, and it’s challenged me.
Photo 01 and 02
Pranjal is a sharp, compassionate, godly leader who is a significant influencer at our partner ministry, Truthseekers International. He starts schools and meets with politicians and speaks at anti-discrimination rallies. Pranjal has a fruitful ministry spreading the Church in India.
But Pranjal has no steady source of income. He gets some support from one of the ministries he runs, but it’s badly underfunded and he often goes without much of a paycheck.
How does he take care of his wife and newborn son? Faith. Hope. Trust. He literally believes that God will take care of his needs. And God does. When Pranjal needs something, it just shows up.
One time someone noticed his wife mixing food by hand. The next day they had an electric mixer. He needed a bed, someone gave him one. His wife needed $1000 for school exams. On the day the money was due, someone handed Pranjal two envelopes. One from his family, one from some friends. Combined, they had exactly $1000 inside.
Pranjal leads an abundant life. He’s happy, stress-free, influential… He gives the firstfruits (more than the firstfruits) of his time, talent, and treasure to God. And he is blessed because of it.
Can you see why Pranjal’s life is so challenging to me? He’s not some idealistic caricature from first-century Palestine. He’s a living, breathing person today. If his level of trust is possible – if the abundance of his life is actually attainable in our modern world – then I had better sit up and take notice.
So that’s what I want us to do today. Take notice. I want to look at what the Bible has to say about abundance and see if maybe you and I can get a taste of that blessing in our lives.
LAST TWO WEEKS
For the last two weeks, we’ve been in a series called “Off the Top: giving our firstfruits to God.” We’ve looked into what it means for us to give God the absolute best of our lives. The things we cherish the most: time, talent, and treasure.
If you remember from the first week, we are redeemed and we are being redeemed. And one of the paths to this redemption is training, practice, discipline. It’s something you work at.
So the big idea for this series is this:
If we are to continue in our redemption we must practice giving off the top of our lives to God our time, talent and treasures. And when we do not only will we be transformed but we will be blessed!
So we’ve looked at giving the firstfruits of our time. We’ve looked at giving the firstfruits of our talents and passions. Today, we’re going to look at everyone’s favorite topic: giving the firstfruits of our money.
But before we dive into what this looks like in our lives, I think it will helpful to understand a bit more about the biblical precedent for giving. Like, in the Old Testament law, what was actually required?
THREE OFFERINGS
Well, the short answer is: a lot. When we read the words “offering” and “sacrifice” in English, it actually comes 11 different Hebrew words. There were guilt offerings and wave offerings and peace offerings and on and on and on…
All told, an average Israelite gave more than 30% of their income back to God. Maybe more.
Now, there were essentially three major purposes each of these offerings fell into (This is a list I made up by the way. It’s not in the Bible. But I find it helpful.)
First, there were offerings of atonement. These were offerings made to remove the consequences of sin. The slain animal would be a substitute for the person sacrificing it. Well, we don’t need to make atonement offerings anymore, since Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.
Second, there were offerings of gratitude. These offerings, like the firstfruits offering, were meant to be an outpouring of thanksgiving for the abundance God had blessed the people with. I think the principles here are still valid today. There’s something to be said for letting our offerings reflect our deep gratitude for God’s provision.
Finally, there were what I’ll call offerings of mission. These were offerings that fulfilled God’s purposes in the world. For example, the giving of firstfruits was actually how the priests were fed. They had given their entire life in service to God, so these offerings were sort of like their wages.
Now, we don’t have a physical temple with priests anymore, but we do have many people who have given their entire lives in service to the kingdom. Folks on staff at this church, people working for non-profit ministries, missionaries… We are fulfilling God’s purposes in the world when we support them with our resources.
And of course, offerings of mission wouldn’t be complete without fulfilling God’s desire to care for the poor and marginalized. Every third year, the Israelites were to take an additional tithe (10%) of their harvest and gather it up with the rest of their village to feed the poor, the widows, and the immigrants in their midst, not to mention leaving the edges of their fields un-harvested so the poor would be able to feed their families.
It’s not much of a stretch to see how our money can serve the same purposes.
So, offerings of atonement, of gratitude, of mission… You get it. It was a lot.
GOD OWNS IT ALL
But if all this required giving seems a bit unreasonable, I think it’s important to remember a foundational truth we see throughout scripture. And it’s this: God owns it all.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
Yes, it’s easy to see the things we have as our own, but we are simply stewards. God owns it all.
In Malachi 3, the people of Israel had forgotten this truth. They saw the stuff they had as theirs and their offerings dried up when money was tight.
They looked at their possessions, the fruits of their labor, and said, “Yeah. This is mine. I earned this. And I just, uh… don’t think I have any extra to spare right now. Sorry God!”
They stopped trusting God to provide for their needs, and started putting all of their eggs in the basket of self-sufficiency.
But the worst part of their stinginess wasn’t the fact that God wasn’t getting what he needed. God doesn’t need anything from us. Remember: he owns it all. No. The worst part of their tight-fisted mentality is that they were missing out on the fruit of generosity.
By relying on their own capacities, their own abilities, they only had access to what they themselves could provide. But if they would only obey the command to give generously to God, they would have access to the resources of the One who owns it all!
So here’s the challenge God gives them in verse 10.
Malachi 3:10-12
“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 you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land.”
Test me in this.
You see, in God’s kingdom, giving isn’t a zero sum game. The Israelites thought, “If I give X amount away, what I have will be reduced by X amount.” That’s logical. But God’s not logical sometimes. He doesn’t play by the rules.
Let me paraphrase a bit. It’s like God’s saying:
“Bring me your tithes, and I’ll make the grapes stay on the vine until you’re ready for them. Those locusts eating your crops? I’ll just send them to the other guy’s field. I can send you more rain. I can make your grain storage last a little longer. I can bring you better prices at the market. That 10% you bring me is going to look like nothing compared to what I’ll give you if you just trust me.”
Test me in this.
And here’s the thing, guys: This same illogical economy of the kingdom is at work today. If we trust God and give generously of our money, he will bless us.
HEALTH AND WEALTH
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not preaching some health and wealth gospel here. I’m not saying that if you call this toll free number and make your pledge today you’ll be driving a Maserati tomorrow.
This blessing, this abundance, promised by God, might not look the way we expect.
I mean, most of us in this room don’t struggle with locusts. We don’t have vineyards to tend. Our income doesn’t generally depend on rainfall amounts.
So what does it mean in our lives for God to “throw open the floodgates of heaven”? If giving isn’t a zero sum game, what is this promised abundance?
Well, to answer this question, I want to take a look at the words of Jesus, who spoke a lot about the upside down kingdom of God. Let’s see what he says about the blessing that comes from giving.
WORRY
First, let’s turn to Matthew 6:25, page _________ in the Bibles in the seat in front of you. Here Jesus is giving his famous “Sermon on the Mount,” describing truths about the kingdom that are sometimes a bit uncomfortable for us.
Matthew 6:25-27
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about you body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Matthew 6:31-33
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or “What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Honestly, of all the teachings of Jesus, this has got to be one of the hardest for Americans like us to grasp. We are so ruthlessly committed to self-sufficiency, the idea of letting someone else take care of us seems like heresy, even if that person is God himself!
We have to maintain control of our money. But that’s not always possible in our chaotic world. So we stress. We worry. We panic. We buy stuff to help us relax, and then realize that the stuff could break, or get stolen, so we stress and worry and panic some more.
But here Jesus says we’ve got it all backwards.
Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
There’s no need to overcomplicate this. It’s Malachi 3 all over again. Getting our priorities straight. If we give our first and best to God, off-the-top generosity, then He will more than meet our needs. It’s a promise. A guarantee, from the God who owns it all.
ILLUSTRATION
Several years ago I was an intern here at Grace. It was a great opportunity, but man. My salary was pretty small. I did not have a whole lot of margin in my budget.
But I had just spent a year living in Kenya. I had met some incredible leaders who gave generously even when they had nothing to spare. I had seen God come through for them time and time again. So I decided to give it a shot in my own life. I began experimenting with this concept… testing its limits.
I started bumping up my tithe by a percent here, a percent there… I started sponsoring a child. I filled up a green bag every time I went to the grocery store. It was kind of fun. Risky.
But I remember one week in particular, when I looked at my budget and started stressing. I may have overdone it a bit. I didn’t even know how I was going to pay for food. But I remember saying to God, “Alright God. I’m going to keep on giving this month and I dare you to take care of me!” I actually said that.
No joke, the next day I got a call from someone saying, “Hey Barry? Yeah, we had this event last night and have like 15 Tupperwares full of chili. Would you be able to use any of them?”
I was like, “Uh, yeah. I think I could.” And so I ate chili every day for a week. Problem solved.
Now, I realize I wasn’t in any real danger. If I ran out of money, I could have just gone to my parents’ house for food. There wasn’t a ton at stake. But it was a significant moment. I took a risk for the kingdom and God came through for me.
And I’ll tell you, the next time I wondered whether I should or shouldn’t give some money away, I definitely worried a bit less. The words of Jesus didn’t sound so hopelessly idealistic anymore.
Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
I began to realize – maybe what Jesus means by this is if you seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, all these things will be given to you as well.
Could it be that simple? Because if that’s true, and I give generously to the kingdom, then I don’t have to worry. Period.
Come to think of it, I have never in my life seen a person who gives generously of their time and money and possessions for the kingdom go hungry. I have never seen them desperate. And you know what’s really crazy? I have never seen them stressed about it.
Pranjal, my friend I mentioned at the beginning, has no idea how he’s going to feed his family next month, but he is cool as a cucumber. Christ followers like him are so utterly confident of God’s provision, that worry simply never enters into the equation.
How do you think they got there? Do you think they just woke up one morning feeling stress free? Or was it something they learned? Giving generously of their lives and money, seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and watching as God comes through for them again, and again, and again…
Friends, that could be you. Free from worry. Released from the quicksand of stress. At peace. But it won’t just happen.
Abundance starts with generosity.
RELATIONSHIP
So God throwing open the floodgates of heaven looks like a release from stress and worry. But it also looks like a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Take a look at Matthew 6:19. Again, Jesus is teaching his disciples about money.
Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Now, for a long time, I didn’t think this passage really applied to me. I mean, “I don’t serve money. I’m not some Wall Street fat cat lighting a cigar with a rolled up 100 dollar bill.”
But the more I’ve thought about this, the more I realize that serving money is a whole lot easier to do than we seem to think it is.
I mean, think about it this way. How often does money call the shots in your decisions? Think about the last major life decision you had to make. Job, house, family… Do you have it? Ok, now raise your hands if money was a significant factor in the choice you ended up making.
Right. Most of us. Money… telling us what to do. Where to work. How to live. That sounds like the kind of thing a master would do.
The hard truth is that many of us are slaves to money. At the mercy of money. Letting money call the shots. And living in America? It doesn’t even seem like that big of a deal.
But friends, the chains of this bondage to money are choking the life out of our relationship with Christ.
No one can serve two masters.
But… there is a way to break the hold money has on us. There’s a way to flip the script. That way is generosity.
PARTNER CATALOG
Let me give you an example.
I have this tradition. Every Christmas, I set aside some money and make gift cards for my family that they can use for the Grace Partner Catalog, to designate money for our different partner ministries. It’s not a lot, but it’s a cool practice.
But this past Christmas, I realized I didn’t have any extra money in the giving section of my budget. I had forgotten about the Partner Catalog until it was too late. Oops!
But I did have some money in this savings fund for this new gadget I wanted. I had the old one, they came out with the new one, so I was like, “I’ve got to get the new one.” I stressed about when I’d be able to buy it, and which accessories I’d need to get, etc.
Well, long story short, I ended up making the decision to take money out of the gadget fund and put it toward the Partner Catalog.
But let me tell you something. The moment I wrote that check – literally, the moment I signed my name – it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I could breathe again.
Over the next couple of weeks I realized I didn’t even really want that gadget. My life was perfectly fine without it. I had been enslaved by the obligations of consumerism. But giving changed that.
WHEN WE GIVE
When we give, we put money in its place. When we’re generous, we’re telling our money, “I don’t serve you. You serve me.” As counterintuitive as it sounds, being generous with our money is one of the most freeing things we can do!
And get this. When we break free of money’s power, we open the door to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Giving generously – freeing ourselves from the control of money – allows us to serve with all of our hearts, to do whatever God invites us to do…
Can you imagine what that would be like? The freedom to follow God’s call. The liberty to make decisions without money even being a factor. An abundant life of faith. This could be you. But it won’t just happen.
Abundance starts with generosity.
RESPONSIBILITY
So. A release from worry. A deeper relationship with Jesus. There’s one more area of abundance that gets unlocked when we’re generous.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable about a master who goes away on a journey. Before he leaves, he entrusts three of his servants with his money. To one he gives 5 talents, to one he gives 2 talents, and to one he gives 1 talent.
We don’t know exactly how much a talent was worth, but we’re talking a lot of money.
Well, when the master comes back from his journey he checks in with his servants. The one with 5 talents and the one with 2 talents had put the master’s money to work. They invested it. They started businesses. We don’t know. But somehow they both doubled what the master had given them. The master, of course, is very pleased and says to each of them,
Matthew 25:21
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!
But then he talks to the servant with 1 talent. The guy was scared of displeasing the master, so he just dug a hole and hid the talent in the backyard so he wouldn’t lose it. Turns out that was not the best idea.
The master is ticked. He calls him a “wicked, lazy servant” and then has him thrown out “into the darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Yikes.
Now, this parable applies to all three things we’ve been talking about in this series. Time. Talent. AND Treasure. Jesus is teaching us about the importance of what we do with all the stuff God has blessed us with.
But for a second I want to focus in on what this story says about money.
The fact is, God, our master, who owns it all, has entrusted us with an incredible amount of resources. And that includes the money in our bank accounts.
We’re called to be “good stewards” of what we have.
Now, that phrase, “being a good steward,” is one I hear a lot around here. Usually in the context of safeguarding our money, or protecting it, or being careful in how we spend it.
Except, hold on… The only steward in this story who safeguarded and protected his master’s money was the one who was called “wicked and lazy” and thrown out into the mud.
The good stewards were the ones who risked their master’s money. Who put it to work.
The money God has blessed us with is meant to be invested in his kingdom. Risked for his purposes in the world. He has entrusted us with money to develop a diverse portfolio of kingdom investments.
Financial holdings in church planters and orphans and evangelists and widows and pastors… A return on investment of salvation and justice and healing and freedom and hope… That’s what our money is for. That’s why we have the stuff in the first place!
What an incredible privilege. But that’s not all. Remember what the master says to the good stewards?
Matthew 25:21
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!
When we give, when we use our resources to fulfill the purposes of our master, he gives us greater responsibility. More resources to invest. Our generosity will lead us to greater mission.
Being faithful with a few things is how an abundant life begins. A life of purpose. A life that matters in this world. A life that gets you out of bed in the morning with a spring in your step because you know God is using you to change the world.
You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.
That could be said of you. But it won’t just happen.
Abundance starts with generosity.
Freedom from worry, a deeper relationship with Jesus, increasing responsibility and mission… This is just the tip of the iceberg. If we had the time, I could go on and on about the abundance that can be ours. Contentment, joy, a stronger prayer life, influence…
This is the abundant life we are promised if we give generously of our firstfruits. This is God “throwing open the floodgates of heaven.” And it’s available to every single one of us.
CAVEAT
But friends, I’m a healthy, single, 30 year old guy with no debt, no dependents, and no mortgage. You are well within your rights to take everything I say with a grain of salt.
I don’t know what it’s like saving for your kids to go to college. I don’t know what it’s like paying down student loans. I don’t know what it’s like being responsible for a chronically ill child.
All I know about this promised abundance is what I’ve experienced in my own life and what I’ve seen lived out in the lives of others. Rich, poor, suburbanite, slum dweller, single, married… people like Pranjal in India who have given generously of their firstfruits and watched as God has opened the floodgates of heaven and given them an abundant life.
CONCLUSION
How do you know if this is all true? How do you know this isn’t just a bunch of wishful thinking?
You don’t. You can’t. I cannot convince you this is true. You won’t have proof until you try it for yourself. You have to see it with your own two eyes.
Malachi 3:10
Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven.”
God has given us a challenge. “Try me. Give it a shot. See if you can give too much money to my kingdom. Go for it. I double dog dare you. Trust me.”
This isn’t some abstract theological concept. This is as practical as it gets. Give generously of your money, your possessions, your treasure, and you will be blessed. You will experience abundance.
But it won’t just happen. You will never know if it’s true until you take that first step of faith.
Abundance starts with generosity. Generosity starts with trust.