Giving Prayerfully

Tonight, our subject in our short series on giving is Giving Prayerfully and we are looking at 1 Chronicles 29.10-20. And my headings, after some words of introduction, are first, ROAD BLOCKS TO GIVING and secondly, GIVING THAT PLEASES GOD

By way of introduction, however, some context.

The two books of Chronicles were written late in the history of God's ancient people the Jews after their return from exile following their deportation to Babylon. They were written to encourage people who probably were struggling to maintain their faith in difficult times. The Chronicler tells them better times are possible.

It was better especially in the time of King David. Indeed, they were generally better when the people trusted the true God. Their problems came when they preferred the Baalistic, orgiastic religions of their pagan neighbours. The result then was not only moral and spiritual decline but military defeat. And things got so bad that in the end the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, broke down its walls and destroyed its temple.

Well, 1 Chronicles 28-29 is dealing with David and that better age. And the Chronicler explains how David had a vision for growth - for helping more people worship God in ways more worthy of him. He wanted a temple built in place of a mere tent that was then housing their sacred Ark of the Covenant. So David summoned all the key leaders and explained his vision and the plans. He made it clear that good intentions and plans without funds are useless. And the leaders knew that to commit themselves to God meant committing their cheque books (or the ancient equivalent) as well.

As we learnt last week, there followed amazing sacrificial giving for the new temple. Of course, even for many of the very first readers of Chronicles (and certainly since Christ), the temple was (and is) a thing of the past as a way of salvation. But there are principles here for all time. So much by way of introduction. But why is there not always giving by the people of God like the giving recorded in verses 1-9 of our chapter? Well, that brings us to verses 10-20 and my …

… first heading, ROAD BLOCKS TO GIVING.

Let me list four.

First, too small a vision of God. Look at verses 10–11:

“David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

Why should you give to God if he is hardly different to Father Christmas? But if God is there and real; if he is the creator and sustainer of all things, including you and me; if he is the ultimate judge of all; if he is a God who cares for you and me down to the last detail of our lives, as David and these leaders believed - how can you not give to him? Look at how David speaks of God: he is

“from everlasting to everlasting” (verse 10).

So he is the Lord of time (and space) and our eternal, sovereign creator. The whole universe is his and its immensity with billions of stars and galaxies. God’s power, glory, majesty and splendour is evident from the created order. And as this universe was not self-created, neither is it self-sustaining. Its stability depends on God's almighty, upholding power. The New Testament teaches that that upholding, or sustaining, is a special ministry of God the Son. All that is why, in this world or universe, you have to say, as verse 11 says, and as is taken up by Jesus at the end of the Lord's prayer:

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

When people have too small a vision of God, inevitably you have a road block to giving.

Another road block, secondly, is too mean a vision of God. Look at verses 12-13:

“Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.”

What could be clearer - “wealth and honour come from you”! This is the goodness of God's grace that affects even this life. The Bible from cover to cover shows us that God is good and a God of all grace (which really means “giving”). Giving is at the heart of God’s character. God so loved the world, that he gave his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for your sins and mine. And if you are going to be God-like, you have to be a giving person, too – giving your time, your concern for others, your friendship for them and, yes, giving your money. And this verse tells you that your wealth and honour - your status in society (in respect of which you can get wealth) - are all from God. For he is the “ruler of all things.”

So if you were born into a good family, it is because God put you there. If you then had a decent education and job opportunities, or if you are made redundant and have the ability to try something else, it is because God made all that possible. Yes, he used your parents, teachers, employers and others as secondary causes. But all wealth and honour ultimately come from God, as verse 12 says. The Bible teaches he made this world so that we should be wealthy through being productive. And in the UK even the poor are relatively wealthy.

Yes, you can be blessed when you are poor, as Jesus said. But poverty is not something you should call good. Rightly people talk about making war on poverty. Listen:

“Nearly 50% of the world's population – almost 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. 840 million suffer from hunger. Ten million children die every year from easily preventable diseases. AIDS kills 3 million people every year and is spreading. One billion people lack access to sanitation. One billion adults are illiterate. About one-quarter of children in poor countries do not finish primary school. Meanwhile the richest 20% of the world's population own 77% of the world's wealth while the poorest 20% own 1.4%.”

So the poorest among us is rich by comparison with the world’s poor. But why does God make us rich? In the New Testament Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9.11:

“You will be made rich in every way so that ... ”

... how did he carry on? - “so that you can have a rich life-style”? No! He said:

“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

So, too mean a vision of God – a failure to see that he gives us so much, even in this life as well as salvation for all eternity - is another road block to giving.

A third road block is ignoring stewardship.Look at verse 14 and verse 16:

But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand ... O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”

This is a classic statement about stewardship. As everything comes from God, you are to consider it his property. You are simply holding it in trust for him. You are stewarding it for him. You should, therefore, use it for him and his purposes.

Of course, the Bible makes it clear that his purposes were (then) more than just temple- or (now) church-purposes. You have duties to your family and the wider world. You are to make reasonable provision for the present in terms of food, clothing and shelter and for the future – think of Joseph in Egypt in the Old Testament (modern bankers could well learn from Joseph). You are to trade and invest and pay taxes. But, of course, you must also give for God's work - for overt Christian teaching, ministry, evangelism, church planting and caring for the needy around the world.

In the Old Testament people used to tithe – or give a tenth. When they failed or got slack in tithing, they were said to be “robbing” God. Who in this church is robbing God? In the New Testament Jesus endorsed the tithe principle but not in a legalistic way.

You read in the New Testament of those who surpassed the righteousness of the Pharisees in respect of giving a tenth. There was Zacchaeus, a rich tax-collector, who gave 50% of his “possessions to the poor”. And there was “a poor widow” who gave just “two very small copper coins”; but this was 100% - “all she had to live on”.

Do you realize that you are a steward, for God, of all you have? And you are responsible for all you have, for it is individual stewardship. Individual stewardship means that I am not able, in a communistic way, to help my-self to your DVD player when mine is broken without asking you. That is theft, if I don't know you and don’t return it, or cheek and bad-manners, if I do and call it borrowing. But because stewardship is individual stewardship, we all, individually, are responsible before God. So to ignore stewardship is another road block to giving.

Fourthly, there is ignoring heaven. Look at verse 15:

“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.”

David wanted the temple to help reconciliation with God. For alienated from God, there is no hope. “There is darkness without, and when I die,” said the atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell, “there will be darkness within.” Remember Jesus Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke12. The rich man said to himself,

“You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

He had completely lost sight of God and eternity. For the parable goes on like this: “But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'” And Jesus then gave a solemn warning:

“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.”

Randy Alcorn in his challenging little book, The Treasure Principle has a section entitled, “Five minutes after we die;” he says this:

“Unbelievers have no second chance to relive their lives, this time choosing Christ. But Christians also get no second chance to live life over, this time doing more to help the needy and invest in God's kingdom. We have one brief opportunity – a lifetime on earth – to use our resources to make a difference.”

John Wesley said,

“I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”

Undoubtedly ignoring heaven is a road block to giving. So that brings us to our ...

… second main heading, GIVING THAT PLEASES GOD

In addition to giving that springs from a vision of the greatness and goodness of God and that takes stewardship seriously and is focused on heaven, David highlights, as “pleasing” to God, giving willingly. Look at verse 17:

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

“God loves a cheerful giver,”

says Paul in 2 Corinthians 9.7. He said that in the context of saying:

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

Jesus also taught …

“… give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6.38).

If you really believe that, of course you will be a willing giver. None of this allows you to say as some do, “if I double my giving to the church, my salary will automatically be doubled.” But it is amazing how God does honour even financially in this life generous givers. Perhaps it is because they are good stewards and know how to handle more money for God and then will give much of that for his purposes.

William Colgate, founder of Colgate-Palmolive, joined a church in New York. As a boy he gave ten US cents to the Lord's work out of every dollar he earned (ten per cent). As his business prospered he gave two-tenths, rising to five-tenths (or fifty per cent). Then when his children were educated he gave all his income to God. It is amazing how God so often multiplies people's resources when they know how to give sacrificially to God and his work. In that passage in 2 Corinthians, Paul goes on:

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

Treasure in heaven must be a good investment – it will be paying off not just when you reach retirement age but for all eternity. Giving willingly pleases God.

Secondly, so does giving prayerfully. Look at how David prays in verses 18-19:

“O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.

The devil is out to stop God's work. He will try to stop anything that promotes Jesus Christ. The devil is anti-Christ. He will try to stop funds supporting God’s work – not least at this time of the credit crunch. That is why you need to pray. I’m sure the devil will work on the hearts of some so that they loose their desire to give to this church. And he will try to sow disloyalty to God.

Perhaps tonight you find all this talk on giving quite bemusing. If so, can I ask you a direct question? Is your heart right with God? That is picture language, but it is clear enough. The Bible says, God …

“will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you” (Ezekiel 36.26).

If you commit yourself to Jesus Christ, that is what happens. That is what you need, to understand Christian “giving” for it is related to the heart. Jesus says:

“where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mat 6.21).

So David prays, at the conclusion of this great act of giving and praise, that God will, verse 18:

“keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you.”

Are you already a believer in Jesus Christ and one of God's people? Well, David prayed for you. For he prayed for God's “people forever” to keep this desire. Do you have that desire to give to God's work and to see his work grow here at Jesmond and on Tyneside and in England and throughout Europe and the world as more people come to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord?

That is the challenge to each one of us at this time of our giving review.

As we conclude look at verse 20:

“Then David said to the whole assembly, 'Praise the LORD your God.' So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king.”

May we, too, praise the Lord, not only with our lips but also with all that God has given us, including our money.