Dr. Rodney Plunket

Two men were shipwrecked on a desert island that was nothing but a chunk of rock sticking up just a few feet above sea level.  There was nothing to drink and nothing to eat.  One man was in a state of morbid fear.  He cried out in severe anxiety because of his certainty that they were doomed to die.  The other man calmly sat with his feet in the water and enjoyed an unobstructed view of the ocean.  The other man railed at him, “How can you sit so calmly?  We’re doomed.”  The man looked up calmly and said, “I make $100,000/month.  They will find us.”  “What does money have to do with anything on a God-forsaken rock like this?  You can’t use it to buy help.  You can’t contact your bank.  You’re nuts.”  The man with his feet in the water said, “Ah, but you don’t understand.  I not only make $100,000/month; I tithe to my church.  My pastor will find me.”  People get some pretty mixed up views about money when it comes to church?  For four weeks, beginning last Sunday, we are trying to address those mixed up views.

Let’s begin this morning by thinking for just a minute of some material things which we have in our homes today that people lived for millennia without:  automobiles, televisions, microwaves, computers, Internet access, and the list could be lengthened.  And I wonder––how many third-world dwellings would fit into just one of our houses?

The book that each Broadway household has received to read during this special four-week period was written by Dr Kregg Hood.  When we used an earlier edition of this book several years ago, I learned that Kregg’s views of generous giving were developed while he was on staff right here at Broadway.  And the person who really taught Kregg to give was a beloved Broadway elder known for generosity.  Brother R. B. Carter is the one whom Kregg credits with teaching him the proper attitude with regard to generous giving, with regard to the Christian and wealth.  I know that many of us today are teaching and exemplifying the proper attitude with regard to generous giving, the proper Christian attitude to wealth; and that is extremely important because the Bible makes very clear that having wealth can be a great stumbling block to the believer.  Please take your Bibles and turn to Matthew19:23-26 and follow along as I read.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?”  But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

I know that some relate Jesus’ words here about the “eye of a needle” to a narrow Jerusalem gate.  Donald A. Hagner in his 1995 commentary on Matthew’s Gospel is surely right, however, when he says that those who understand the “eye of the needle” as a narrow doorway miss the very point of the imagery.  The analogy is deliberately ludicrous and hyperbolic.  Nor is it to be taken as pointing to the literal impossibility of the rich entering the kingdom . . . but as a way of underlining the exceptional difficulty of this occurring.

Sisters and brothers, we must candidly acknowledge that wealth can lock our eyes onto the things of this world and can take our eyes away from the kingdom of God.  Satan dangles the glittering bauble of wealth before us with incredible success.  We must resist.  We do so by developing a Christian attitude to our wealth.  We do that by, as we said last week, giving ourselves to the Lord.  Because when we give ourselves to the Lord we also give all that we possess to the Lord and we see all that we have as God’s property, as God’s blessings.  Then we can serve humbly and selflessly as the stewards of God’s riches.  That will lead us to learn to be generous as God has been generous to us.

Paul in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 says,

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

No passage in the NT applies more directly to us than does this one.  We “are rich” and we must, therefore, be “rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.”

But what is it to give generously?  Does the Bible present any guidelines?  Yes it does.  Hopefully you have read the second chapter in the book Take God at His Word, the chapter entitled “I Want You to Tithe So I May Reward You.”  If you have read that chapter then you have seen some of those guidelines.

Sometimes we have a couple of attitudes that make it very difficult for us to take seriously the Bible’s guidelines concerning tithing.  The first attitude is that anything inconvenient has to be explicitly commanded by God for us to do it.  Second, we sometimes believe that few if any of the commandments in the Old Testament (OT) are relevant to us.  Since all of the explicit commandments to tithe are in the OT, we feel no obligation to comply.

In response, let me point out that in 1 Tm 6:17-19, a New Testament (NT) passage, does explicitly command us to be “generous givers.”  Since the OT used the tithe (a tenth of one’s earnings) as the required amount to be given, it is obvious that to give generously would mean at least that much.  In addition, allow me to note another passage from Paul.  In 2 Tim. 3:16-17 he says,

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

Most all of us have heard that passage many times, but many of us have never stopped to realize that Paul wrote it with regard to the Old Testament.  That is made clear by the context.  The preceding verse reveals that Paul is referring to the “sacred writings” that Timothy had known from childhood.  The Old Testament writings were what Timothy, a person raised by his godly Jewish mother and godly Jewish grandmother, had known from childhood; and, when Paul wrote 2 Timothy, the NT had not even come together as a collection; many of the NT books had not even been written.  So Paul is talking specifically in 2 Tm 3:16-17 about the Old Testament when he refers to scriptures that are “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”  Such an awareness would indicate to me that there is something about every OT teaching that is supposed to bless my life and equip me “for every good work.”

But that is not all.  Jesus confronts tithing in Matthew (Mt) 23:23; Luke (Lk) 11:42, and Lk 18:12.  Never does he convey a negative attitude toward that practice.  In fact, in both Mt 23 and in Lk 11, Jesus tells those who are tithing to keep doing it and to go on to fulfilling “the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith” (Mt 23:23).

The writer of Hebrews also refers to tithing in Hebrews 7.  Again, there is not a negative thing said about that practice, and the reference in Heb 7 is to Abraham’s giving of a tenth to Melchizedek––the high priest in whose line Jesus stands.

What is vitally important, it seems to me, is the person whose example of giving Jesus specifically commends.  Listen to Mark 12:41-44, a passage paralleled in Lk 21:1-4.

[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.  For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Jesus refers to tithing and never says anything negative about that practice. He commends a poor widow who gives much more than a tenth; she gives all that she had.  How can we, we who are so blessed materially, give less than a tithe.  How can we pretend that we have given ourselves to the Lord if we give less than the scribes and the Pharisees did to the Lord.

Studies indicate that the average contribution in American churches is approximately 2.5 percent of members’ income.  What indications that we have reveal that Broadway does better than the national average.  They do not indicate  that we do as well as a 5% per household average, but let’s imagine that we do.  That means that if every church member would do no more than the biblical amount of 10%, then our giving would double.  Broadway’s budget would jump from $25,250 per week to $50,500 per week. 

Can you imagine how many more missionaries God could support through us?  Can you imagine how many more poor and homeless He could bless?  Can you imagine our children’s education program.  We could actually afford to teach the Bible to children with the same quality of materials and equipment that are used to teach them science and history.  Can you imagine how many more teens could participate in youth activities because of the reduced cost of those activities?  Can you imagine how powerful Christ in Action’s voice within our colleges and universities would become?  Can you imagine the quality of adult Bible teaching we could have.  We could actually afford to bring in the very best Christian minds to guide us in important areas of biblical studies and spiritual maturity.  Can you imagine how much more financial support we could give to the Children’s Home?  And the dreams go on and on.  And they would not be outrageous dreams, if everyone would just give to the level of the scribes and the Pharisees.  Now if we moved in the direction of the poor widow, God would do even more among us and with us.

Paul in Acts 20:35 quotes a statement from Jesus.  That statement from our Lord is that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Let’s show that we believe it by giving generously to our God.

Top | Sermons | Home