Are You Really Giving?
November 12, 2006
Part 1 of 2006 Stewardship Series
A minister stood before his congregation as his Church began it’s Steardship Season and gave the old line:
“Today I have good news and bad news.”
All eyes looked at him to see what he would say.
“The good news” – he said “Is that after much prayer I have come to the realization that this Church has all the money it needs to do whatever we wish to do”
Everyone looked puzzled – especially the Elders and the head of the Finance Committee — for they knew better – and besides, they had never heard of a minister standing before a congregation and declaring that the Church had all the money it needed.
What kind of beginning to the Stewardship Season was that?
But the minister persisted.
“Yes – the good news is the Church has all the money it needs to do whatever we want –
But” – he continued – “the bad news is – most of the money we need is in your wallets.”
That’s the case with many churches – is it not?
They may have all the money they need – but it’s in the wallets of the members. If the members were to give more – if more members were to take seriously the Biblical concept of the tithe – giving 10% of what you have to God – the work of God could be accomplished.
Yes – good news and bad news. The church may have all the money it needs – but it may be in your wallets.
Maybe – as we begin our Stewardship Season – I should be like the Capitol One Credit card commercial and pose the question:
“What’s in your wallet?”
But – you know – there is more to stewardship than what’s in your wallet. Stewardship has got to be more than just giving your money – although that is certainly a part of it. Stewardship has got to involve your life – what you have – what God has given you – whether it be money – time – talents – or whatever God has blessed you with. Actually, our stewardship of what God has given us is our response to God – we see what God has blessed with – whether it be money – time – talents – or whatever – and we want to return a potion of it to God for His work in the world.
For the next 3 weeks we are going to look at different aspects of stewardship – and I hope we’ll see that God has blessed us here at Hopewell with all the money – all the talents – all the abilities – to do whatever God has called us to do – and stewardship is more than what’s in our wallets – it’s about what’s in our lives.
If I were to choose a theme for these sermons it would probably be something like:
Stewardship – It’s More Than What’s In Your Wallet
One element of stewardship – and our lives as Christians – is trust.
Trusting God.
Trusting God enough to really give back to God what He has given to us – and trusting that God will supply our needs – and supply much more than our needs – when we really give back to God what God has given to us.
Listen to what happened to the prophet Elijah – and a widow – when they decided to really give to God – when they realized that stewardship required more of them than what was in their wallets.
READ 1 KINGS 17:1-24
I have a question for you.
What constitutes real giving to God?
What do you think real giving to God is?
What kind of giving do you think pleases Him, honors Him, and advances His work?
Yea – the “good news, bad news” line that the church may have all the money it needs – but it may be in your wallets may be funny – and real giving to God needs to include what’s in your wallet as the Capital One Credit Card slogan says – but it also needs to include more than what’s in your wallet.
Elijah and the widow both give more than “what’s in their wallets” to God. Their lives show that they are willing to give more than “what’s in their wallets”.
They were really giving their all.
Are you?
Are you really giving your all?
Are you really giving?
As our passage begins, Elijah has just announced a drought.
You can imagine the situation. People are destitute, screaming for food. Then God through Elijah has the audacity to ask this single mother to give him not just one meal; he is really looking to mooch off her for several years.
But you know — his challenging request is actually a service to her – because it gives her the opportunity to give in a real way to God and to really see God provide for her.
If you give in a real way to God you will really see what God can provide for you.
Are you really giving?
Really giving to God is when you put God first and trust him to supply what you need. Really giving to God develops your trust in God and not in your money or in anything else in your life. . Really giving to God develops your trust in the God who can supply for your needs.
So – if you were to evaluate your giving – would you find it to be real – showing a trust in God – or would you find it to be pretend – not really trusting that God will supply for you if you were to truly give to Him?
Whenever you find real giving, you’ll always find a history of God coming through with his abundant provision.
Now – how does Elijah’s story in 1 Kings 17 illustrate real giving?
God was trying to get Ahaz’s attention by sending Elijah to announce a drought. As soon as he announces the drought, God directs Elijah to go to the wilderness to hide. But as he sends him in the wilderness, he promises to provide through ravens.
Amazing.
Two great things happened.
Number one, Elijah obeyed.
Number two, God supplied.
I think Elijah’s obedience is amazing. A wilderness place would be a great place for hiding, but it’s not a great place for surviving. Yet, Elijah obeyed. He went immediately – without question — to this wilderness, and he put himself in a place of depending on God because nobody else was going to provide for him there. God would have to keep His word and provide for Him.
And God did.
God sent wild ravens every morning and every evening to feed this servant who obeyed. He supplied not only in abundance but with gourmet meals. He provides him with meat.
Have you thought about that?
Even when there wasn’t a drought, meat was a luxury, a delicacy in that area. God provides in this rich way. Every morning the ravens bring ordinary bread; every morning they bring extraordinary meat. It was the same thing in the evening.
Elijah obeyed God, and God came through in abundance.
Elijah did more than just give what was in his wallet – he gave his life – and God provided for him.
After this period of Elijah’s obedience and God’s provision, the brook dried up.
A new need arose.
Elijah must have water.
This time, God came through with even wilder instructions than the first time.
And because of God’s past supply, Elijah is ready to obey again.
Now he is told to leave this area by the brook and go across Israel to a Gentile area. He is to go to an area of great danger. These are crazy instructions from God. And here’s the craziest part of it: He’s supposed to go there and find one of the poorest people in the land — a widow — a single mother who’s already overstressed trying to feed her family. He’s supposed to look to her to feed him.
It was a crazy request, just crazy.
But Elijah does it.
He immediately obeys.
Once again, he was willing to give more than what was in his wallet. He was willing to give his life.
Why?
Because of history. He had just had a personal encounter with God where God provided for him through ravens. That personal history gave him the confidence to give himself to God again – to give more than what was in his wallet — and to obey again.
Are you really giving?
If you’re going to be a real giver to God, if you are going to really give to God, you’ve got to become a lover of history. You’ve got to look in history for God’s provision to others and to you – and know that God will continue to do this.
I read about a minister whose secretary shared with him that her husband had just been hit with a bill for a car repair to the tune of $1,000. They prayed that God would provide the money. A week later, she told him that they had received a $1,500 interest payment from a bank going back to 1989. Somehow, the bank had not sent this payment, and now, years later, God provided.
The minister said that he prayed that they would remember God’s provision for years to come – that God’s provision would be in their personal history to thumb through when they needed to remember it.
If you’re going to be a real giver to God, if you are going to really give to God, you’ve got to become a lover of history. You’ve got to look in history for God’s provision to others and to you – and know that God will continue to do this.
I heard a story about a man named Ray. Ray was constantly giving away everything. He gave away his car. He was constantly putting money into people’s hands. But – people who knew Ray noticed that every time he turned around, money was falling into his lap from the strangest places. Ray gave and gave and gave, and God poured and poured and poured back into Ray’s life.
If you’re going to be a real giver to God, if you are going to really give to God, you’ve got to become a lover of history. You’ve got to look in history for God’s provision to others and to you – and know that God will continue to do this.
So – are you really giving to God?
Stewardship involves more than what’s in your wallets – it involves your lives.
But — really giving to God – and trusting God to supply – can be frightening.
For the widow in the passage for today, really giving to God – giving more than what was in her wallet but giving her life and trusting God to supply for her – had to come in a series of steps.
The first step toward real giving is belief.
The woman believed in the God of Israel long before she thought of giving her last meal to him.
In her first conversation with Elijah, she uttered a vow in the name of Israel’s God.
She said, “As surely as the Lord your God.”
She lived adjacent to Israel, but she’s not a Jew. Yet, she believed that Israel’s God was real and true and holy and present. She made a declaration under His holy, watchful eye. In other words, she showed a belief in God. She knew that the man standing in front of her was an Israelite and she could tell that he was intimately connected with God.
Before God commanded this woman to give, God had won her heart. She believed in the God of the neighboring nation.
Before real giving happens, God has got to win your heart. That’s where it starts.
Stewardship has got to be giving more than what’s in your wallet.
Are you really giving?
When Elijah first saw this woman, she was alone gathering sticks.
He must have wondered: Is this the woman God sent me to?
The second step is in her giving was to test her by asking for a smaller need first:
“How about a drink?” he asks.
Now — water was scarce because of the drought. But it was more plentiful in her life than food. So Elijah starts with a lesser need. Instead of ignoring him, this Gentile woman immediately went to get this foreigner a drink of water. She knew he was a man of God. And she went off to serve God by getting the servant of God a drink.
The third step of her journey toward really giving is the greatest one.
When she was on her way to get the water Elijah said:
“Oh, by the way, could I have some bread, too?”
I can almost hear her heels digging in, can’t you?
She began to object. She didn’t object about a drink of water, but now she dug her heels in because, as she says to him:
“Your God knows, he’s watching me. I don’t have much. In fact, I’m down to just a handful of barley flour, and a little oil. In fact, I’ve got just enough for one more meal, and then we’re going to cash it in. We’re done; we’ll die.”
She finds this kind of courageous giving more than she can do.
She’s afraid.
Well, in Elijah’s response, we understand the nature of real giving.
We understand what it means to really give.
He challenges her, in spite of her fear, to give to God first and watch God supply.
He knows it’s a challenge for her, but because of his own history of seeing God provide, he gives her the opportunity to give and he says to her,
“Go and do what you were planning to do. Go and bake some bread, but bring some to me first. And then go make some for your family.”
He encourages, even provokes her toward real giving by reminding her of the promise of God. And the promise of God is “Your flour will not run out. Your oil will never run out the whole time of this drought. Others will struggle, but God will take care of you.”
Are you really giving?
Stewardship indeed must involve more than what’s in your wallet – it has to involve your life.
Do you see what options are against this Gentile widow?
She can trust what she sees, hoard it, make a final meal for her family, then die.
Or she can do the courageous thing of trusting what she can’t see yet, believing the promise of God, giving her food away to God, believing that God will yet provide in a miraculously abundant way.
That’s the challenge.
Are you really giving?
If you’re going to become a real giver, it’s going to take a series of steps.
It’s going to take remembering what God has done in the past.
It’s going to take giving your heart to God.
It’s going to take giving to him in smaller ways until you get to the point where you’ll give to Him first in a radical way, where you’re forced to depend on Him to supply.
It’s more than what’s in your wallet.
But it takes a process to get to the point where you can really give.
Are your really giving?
During World War II, Ernest Gordon was a prisoner along the Thailand border held by the Japanese with several hundred others. He didn’t have any relationship with Christ until he was in what they call the death house where prisoners were sent to die. He felt that there was no hope. Well, some friends pulled him out of there, and he managed to recover.
After recovering, he began to trust Christ and give his whole heart to God.
It was several months later that an old friend of his named Dodger, who was just months from dying, came to visit Ernie. Dodger felt his life was hopeless – and when he came to see Ernie he was very depressed. Ernie wanted to do what he could to encourage his friend. They talked a while, and as Dodger was getting ready to leave, Ernie felt as if he hadn’t yet really helped him. He remembered a novel he borrowed from another friend and asked if Dodger had anything to read. Before he gave the novel to him, he took the only Thai bills he had, a few but the only money he had. He stuck it in the pages of the novel and gave it to Dodger.
Ernie gave courageously.
He needed the extra nourishment that would come from those few dollars to live, but chose instead to put himself in a place of depending on God to supply for him.
That’s courageous giving.
That’s really giving.
Are you really giving?
It indeed takes more than what’s in your wallet.
When we give courageously, it unleashes and frees God to do amazing things in our lives.
That’s the kind of giving that makes it possible for God to provide for us in His own miraculous way. When we give courageously, God can do amazing things.
This was the amazing combination what Elijah did and what the woman did. Through their joint faith, God began to shine in that whole Gentile region.
Remember what Elijah did.
He was a servant who came to a destitute woman and challenged her to give in a courageous way. I’m sure that wasn’t easy for him to do, but he knew God would provide. He lead by calling her to give, knowing that God would come and provide and reveal Himself to her.
Then the woman did something too. She courageously gave. She went off and baked and took the first bread to the man of God, believing that God would provide.
Then just look at the results:
First — Elijah, has food to eat every day. This is a great provision of God. This was not a safe place for him to be. He was trying as the servant of God to call the Israelites back from their terrible idolatry. But if he’s going to hang in there and do that, he’s got to eat. So for twelve to eighteen months, God took care of his needs through an impoverished, single mother. God provides.
Here’s the second great result — The woman and her son have food through that whole period of drought. In ancient lands like this, every widow was poor by definition. A widow had no provider, no protector. They were always terribly poor. But this woman and her son were just on the brink of death because the drought was hitting them so hard. Yet – she courageously obeyed Elijah — and every day for twelve to eighteen months her bread supply triples. She has enough for him, enough for the family, enough for the next day to start over again. God supplied for her as well.
Are you really giving?
Stewardship is more than what’s in your wallet.
This unleashing of God’s power in the widow’s life came not by her hoarding what she had — but by her spending it, by her giving it. She gave in response to Elijah’s challenge, and God provided in abundant miraculous ways.
What about you?
Are you really giving?
Remember the story I told a few moments ago about Ernie and Dodger.
After Ernie gave that book and money to Dodger, Dodger became a new man. He only had a few months to live — but he somehow found the energy to volunteer in their hospital, helping the orderlies. He volunteered for the dirtiest job in that whole place. Every day he went and collected the rags that the orderlies used to scrape off the skin ulcers of dying patients. Ernie would take these rags and scrape them, boil them, clean them, and take them back for use on other patients.
He’d find eggs for people who were starving and needing the extra nourishment.
He’d make a mess kit for somebody who had lost his.
He made a bucket for somebody who didn’t have a bucket to wash himself.
Ernie gave in a courageous way, and it transformed Dodger into an amazing servant of God. And through Dodger, God provided help for so many others. Where did it begin? Just a small amount of money slipped in the book that Ernie gave to him.
Our courageous giving unleashes the miracle provision of God, if we’re willing to trust him.
Are you really giving?
Stewardship is more than what’s in your wallet.
The story of Elijah and the widow appears to end on a note of tragedy, but it really ends on a note of more giving and more faith.
Even the most courageous givers are not exempt from tragedy.
It was a few months later that this widow’s son died. She thought it was because of some sin in her life, but Elijah thought,
This isn’t due to sin.
Elijah viewed it as an opportunity for God’s glory to shine in that Gentile region.
He took the boy up to his room. He cried out to God with amazing honesty.
He took God to task, didn’t he?
He says, “Wait a minute, God. You saved this boy from starving and then you let him die? Come on!”
Then he prayed in a most fervent way by stretching his body on top of the boy’s breathless body and asked God to restore him to life. And God, for the first time in the Old Testament record, brought somebody back to life.
Why?
The closing sentence of the chapter tells why. God did this miraculous provision of raising the boy back to life so that he might deepen the mother’s faith and touch that whole Gentile region with the glory of His provision for those who trust him.
She began by giving her flour and oil to God, and God provided. Then she gave her dead son to God, and God raises him back to life. She gave s much more that what was in her wallet – and God provided.
Are you really giving?
Stewardship is more than what’s in your wallet.
The chief end of real giving – of stewardship — is trust in God on a deeper and deeper level.
I heard of a man who, for his birthday, was offered by a friend of his who was a pilot the opportunity to go on an airplane ride. For about thirty minutes, they flew over their small town in West Virginia. When they landed, another friend asked the man celebrating his birthday: “Were you scared,?” With some hesitation he said, “Well, no, but I never put my full weight down.”
When we take what we have and offer it to God we put our whole weight down on God.
So – the question we have to answer is – are we really giving?
Stewardship involves more than what’s in your wallet – it involves entrusting all you have to God – so God can bless you in miraculous ways.
Are we trusting God with all we have?
When we do, God steps up and provides in miraculous ways.
Good news and bad news. The church may have all the money it needs – but it may be in your wallets.
But – there is more to stewardship than what’s in your wallet. It’s got to be more than just giving your money – although that is certainly a part of it. Stewardship has got to involve your life – what you have – what God has given you – whether it be money – time – talents – or whatever God has blessed you with.
Actually, our stewardship of what God has given us is our response to God – we see what God has blessed with – whether it be money – time – talents – or whatever – and we want to return a potion of it to God for His work in the world.
Are you really giving?
Really giving to God is giving to God in a way that causes us to be more dependent on Him.
So – when you’re afraid to give –- realize that the only way to have enough is to give courageously to God.
Whether it’s giving your money, your time, your abilities, or whatever God may be calling upon you to give – you need to understand that real giving comes in steps.
Don’t be afraid.
Trust God to supply — and this week, this month, for the rest of your life, take steps toward becoming a real giver to God.
Stewardship.
It is indeed more than what’s in your wallet.
Amen
