Handling God's Finances

How do you measure Christian giving? Now I know many of us practice tithing, and we believe that if under law the Old Testament believer could tithe, certainly under grace we can start there—we don't stop there. The tithe is only the beginning. It's possible for a person to tithe, to give ten percent of his income to the Lord, and still not really be giving, because true Christian giving is not measured so much by the portion as the proportion and the heart. 

In 2 Corinthians 8:10-15, the Apostle Paul shares with us three principles by which God measures our giving. In 2 Corinthians 8:10-12, the principle of willingness. 2 Corinthians 8:13-14, the principle of ability. And then 2 Corinthians 8:15, the principle of faith—obedient faith. Now let's lay hold of these three principles and let's apply them to our own giving. 

First, there's the principle of willingness. 2 Corinthians 8:10-12: "And in this I give my advice; for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be willing a year ago." I reminded you in our previous study that for a year the Corinthians had been delaying in their giving. They had promised Titus a year before that they really wanted to share in this offering. Now you'll remember that this offering was a really a missionary offering. Paul was receiving gifts from the Gentile churches, and he was going to take all of these gifts to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. They had gone through a difficult time; there was persecution, there was an economic problem, there had even been a famine, and there were multitudes of people who needed help in the Jerusalem church. And Paul saw this much more than as a welfare scheme—he wasn't just simply providing food and clothing and so forth, which in itself is good—he saw this as an evidence of spiritual life, the unity of God's people. The Gentiles had received spiritually from the Jews, and now the Gentiles can give materially to the Jews. 

But the problem was the Corinthians had delayed. Their problem was willingness. 2 Corinthians 8:11: "Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have." 2 Corinthians 8:12: "For if there first be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." The point that Paul is making is this: that God looks at the heart. The principle of willingness. Am I giving out of a willing heart? God does not see the hand gift; God sees the heart gift. Now willing and doing have to go together. The Lord makes it very clear that when He starts the willing, He also helps the doing. Philippians 2:12-13: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Now willingness is not a substitute for action. People say, "Well, I'm willing to give, but I just can't do it." Well, now wait a minute. Willingness is not a substitute for action. 

There are times when our heart impels us to do something and we cannot do it, and God sees the heart and He gives us credit for it. I know that. David had that experience. Oh, how David wanted to build the temple. God said, "No, you've been a man of war, you've shed a great deal of blood, I don't want you building the temple; but inasmuch as it was in your heart to do so, I'm going to accept it." There are times when our hearts will one thing, but our circumstances prevent us from doing what we want to do. That's something else. In this matter of giving, Paul is saying the fact that you were willing and enthusiastic is no substitute for doing. Now get busy there in Corinth, take up the offering, and be ready when I show up with the rest of the men who are on the committee, because we want to see your share in this offering. 

The principle of willingness. I think it's a marvelous thing when God works in our hearts and makes us willing to give. One day the Apostle Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, we have forsaken everything to follow you. What are we going to get?" That's quite a selfish attitude, isn't it? "What are we going to get?" At that point our Lord gave the parable of the laborers in the vineyard and pointed out, "You don't worry about what you're going to get, you just do what you're told." But over in Acts, the Apostle Peter shows a different attitude altogether. He said to that beggar in Acts 3:6, he said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." He'd gone from "How much am I going to get?" to "How much can I give?" The principle of willingness. God sees the heart gift, not the hand gift. 

Now the principle of ability. At this point someone says, "Well, Paul, I'm willing to give, but I just don't have a great deal." Now notice what he says in 2 Corinthians 8:12: "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened." He's not suggesting here that one person gets rich, and the other one gets poor. That's ridiculous. Why should the Corinthians become poor just to make the Christians over in Jerusalem rich? No, he's not talking about that at all. 2 Corinthians 8:14: "But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality." 

You see, God wants us to give according to ability. Not just willingness, but ability. According to what you have, not according to what you don't have or not according to what you wish you had. Now this is important, I want you to follow me closely. Where there is a true willingness to give, we will do our very best with what we have. The person who says, "Oh, if I had a hundred dollars I would give it," oh no he wouldn't. No, he wouldn't. If he's not sharing sacrificially out of what he does have, he will not share generously out of what he doesn't have. These people who say, "Well, you know, God sees my heart," yes He does. He really does. He knows the portion and He knows the proportion. And Paul is warning us here that we are not to expect other people to shoulder the burden and carry the load just so we can be eased. On the other hand, he's not asking us to make ourselves poor and not be able to pay our own bills just to meet somebody's need. You see, the principle of ability says this: you give according to what you have with a willing heart, not according to what you don't have or you wish you had. 

My experience has been those who have ten dollars who give generously out of their ten dollars, when they have a hundred dollars they'll give generously out of the hundred. Those who are selfish and miserly with little will be selfish and miserly with much. It's the proportion, not the portion that God sees. You see, our motive for giving is spiritual, but the measure of giving is material. We couldn't begin to give to God in return for all He's given to us. The motive for giving is spiritual. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," 2 Corinthians 8:9. He's done so much for us. But the measure for giving is material. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 16:2: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." That's proportionate giving. 

And you know, God has a way of equalizing things. We give materially, He gives to us spiritually, and then we're able to share with other people spiritually. He's not talking here about some kind of Christian communism. He's simply saying God records the gift of the heart, and God knows how willing we are, and God knows our ability. Now my friend, if you do not have a great deal to give, but you are generous with what you have, if you did have a great deal you would give it, and God sees that and God knows it. First the principle of willingness, then the principle of ability—what we have, not what we don't have. 

And then the principle of faith. 2 Corinthians 8:15: "As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack." He's talking here about the Old Testament experience of the manna, Exodus 16. Every morning for nearly forty years, the manna appeared—this little bread, this little wafer appeared on the dew on the ground—and the Jews were to go out and gather a certain amount every day. And they were not to gather and save extra. And the amazing thing was that no matter how much you gathered, you always had enough. 

Now the principle he's saying is this: trust God. Trust God a day at a time. Don't hoard and don't squander—both are wrong. You remember he said now on Friday you better take up extra because on the Sabbath day you aren't allowed to go out and pick up this manna, and lo and behold they gathered extra and it didn't rot. But the rest of the week if they gathered extra and tried to hoard it, it rotted. Some of you are hoarding wealth that God has given to you, and it's going to rot. Trust God that He will supply your need day by day. Now this doesn't mean we shouldn't save, but there is a limit. There is a point of diminishing returns. And some people, some of God's people are squandering their resources—that's terrible—and some people are hoarding resources, and that's terrible. And God says, "Now I want to have you exercise faith. Trust me." 

Well, let's measure our giving now. There's the principle of willingness: are you giving out of a willing heart? And then there's the principle of ability: I'll say it again, God is interested in the proportion, not the portion. Give according to what you have, not according to what you wish you had. And finally the principle of faith: trusting God to supply your need day after day, trusting Him to show you how to use what He gives to you. Jesus says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And so God is saying to me and to you: don't just talk about it or think about it—do it, and I will bless you in your doing. 

In 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5, Paul deals with the men who were associated with him in the taking up and the delivering of this offering. It raises the question: what kind of people should be allowed to handle God's money? Well, he gives us at least five qualifications of those who should handle God's money. 

First, a God-given desire to serve. 2 Corinthians 8:16-17: "But thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care or concern into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being very diligent, of his own accord he went unto you." Titus did not have to be drafted. You know, so often in a church we find somebody who just doesn't have any concern about spiritual things, but we have to give him a job. "Well, let's make him a trustee; he can't do too much damage." No, he could vote against a building program. He could create problems on a committee.

For some reason or other there are, in almost every church, people who don't want anything to happen unanimously. As long as they're on the board, there's not going to be a unanimous vote. Now Titus wasn't that kind of a person. He had a God-given desire to serve. That is the first qualification for anyone who's going to handle God's money. I'll tell you why: that money represents the lifeblood of people. We have to be very, very careful how we handle God's money. It's not ours, it's not even the church's, it's the Lord's. It was brought by the Lord's people for the Lord's work. A God-given desire to serve. And if you don't have any desire to serve, let somebody take your job who does want to serve. 

Now 2 Corinthians 8:18, we have a second qualification for those who would handle God's resources: a burden for lost souls. 2 Corinthians 8:18: "And we have sent with him," that is with Titus, "the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches." Now we don't know who this brother is. I get the impression that this man, whoever he was, was an evangelist, a soul winner.

Now I want right now to answer this false idea that people have, that some people in the church take care of the material things and others take care of the spiritual things. I've heard folks say, "Well, you know, he's an elder or he's a deacon, he's involved in spiritual things, but he's a trustee or he's on the finance committee, he's involved in material things." My friend, what you do with God's money is spiritual, it's not material. And Paul says, "I want a man along on this committee who has a burden for lost souls." You know why? That's why the church exists. A trustee ought to be a soul winner as much as a pastor or a missionary. We say, "Well, put him on the missionary committee, he's got a burden for missions. Put him on the evangelism committee, he's a soul winner. But put him on the finance committee, he's got a big job at the bank." That doesn't mean anything. I've seen some people who have big financial jobs who don't know how to handle the Lord's money. The fact that somebody can run a business does not mean he knows how to manage the affairs of a church. If he doesn't have a burden for lost souls, he'll waste that money on things that aren't important. There's a difference between prices and values. A God-given desire to serve, that's 2 Corinthians 8:16-17. A burden for lost souls, that's 2 Corinthians 8:18. 

And now a desire to honor God. That's 2 Corinthians 8:19: "And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches"—that word "chosen" means by vote of hand; they raised their hands and said we vote for this fellow, he's got a burden for souls—"he was chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace," that means the money he was taking up, "which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and to show our ready mind." A desire to honor God. Now Paul picks this up in 2 Corinthians 9:1-5. He's talking there about the fact that he wanted to be able to boast about the Corinthian church in the right way. He says, "I know you were ready to give, but you haven't given yet," and he says, "I've been boasting about you all over. I've been telling people a year ago the Corinthians were ready to give." Now he says, "I'm sending this committee to you, lest our boasting should be in vain." Why? It wouldn't bring honor to the Lord.

And so the third qualification is a desire to glorify God, a desire to honor the Lord. Not to brag about money, not to brag about budgets, but to brag about the Lord. You know, the way a church uses its money is a testimony to a lost world. I know of one church that had to go into a building program, and they determined that for every dollar they spent on the new building, they would give another dollar to foreign missions. That's a testimony to the glory of God. I'm not saying you have to do that; I'm just saying it was a testimony to the glory of God. Don't put people on your finance committee who don't have a desire to honor God in the way they spend their money. 

A God-given desire to serve, 2 Corinthians 8:16-17. A burden for lost souls, 2 Corinthians 8:18. A desire to honor God, 2 Corinthians 8:19 and 2 Corinthians 9:1-5. A fourth qualification: a reputation for honesty. 2 Corinthians 8:20-22: "Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us: providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, upon the great confidence which I have in you." A reputation for honesty. You know, people who don't pay their own bills shouldn't be handling God's money. People who have a reputation for financial crookedness shouldn't be handling God's money.

Now the committee says, "We're not going to give any report, God knows what we're doing." Paul says, "People had better know what you're doing. There had better be a report." Don't you invest any money in a ministry that won't tell you what they do with their money. And Paul is very, very careful here to say, "I want people working with me who will be honest in the sight of the Lord and honest in the sight of men." Able to give a clean report, able to show the books and open them and not be embarrassed. Now you may disagree with this—perfectly all right—it's a policy I've tried to follow in my own pastoral ministry: I don't want anybody on my finance committee or handling money who doesn't know how to handle his own money at home. 

A God-given desire to serve, a burden for lost souls, a desire to honor God, a reputation for honesty. And finally 2 Corinthians 8:23-24, a cooperative spirit: "Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be inquired of, anybody asks about these fellows who are on this committee, they are the messengers of the churches," the churches chose them, "and the glory of Christ. Wherefore show ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf." A cooperative spirit. They're stewards, they're partners. Paul says Titus is my partner, he's my fellow worker. These other men are the messengers of the churches. We don't represent ourselves; we represent God's people. We must be very, very careful how we use God's money. A cooperative spirit. There are some people who won't spend money on missions; they're against missions. There are some who are so in love with missions, they won't spend any money on the church building and it's falling apart. Now why not cooperate? Why not pray together and work together and seek the mind of the Lord? 

Let me give you again these five qualifications for those who handle God's money: a God-given desire to serve, a burden for lost souls, a desire to honor God alone, a reputation for honesty, and finally a cooperative spirit. You and I are going to give an accounting someday of how we have used the Lord's money. Don't waste it, don't hoard it. Don't just spend it—invest it. Invest it in things eternal. Put God's money to work for God's glory, and you will always enjoy God's blessing.