Give Out Of Abundance!

Beloved,

In my previous post I suggested that what we do with the remaining 90% of our income after we have brought the tithe to God, is really about how we live our Christian lives isn't it? It is because almost every aspect of our lives is impacted by money and our attitude towards it.

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"

And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up."

Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

And Jesus, looking around, *said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mar 10:17-23 NASB)

What Jesus was trying to teach here is NOT that we have to sell everything to follow him BUT that we cannot make MONEY our God. That rich man said he kept all the commandments that Jesus stated. But when he could not let go of his riches, he failed to keep the 1st commandment:

"You shall have no other gods before Me. (Exo 20:3 NASB)

Now, Jesus did NOT teach that being wealthy is bad or that the wealthy cannot enter the kingdom, just hard. He is not against us having money but He is against money having us.

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1Ti 6:10 NASB)

We cannot emphasis more the dangers of letting money become our god.

May I suggest to you all that God's plan for helping us strike a healthy attitude towards money and wealth is simply to give it away for His glory! :-)

Some of my key guiding verses when it comes to wealth/money are taken from 2 Cor 9:6-11.

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed
in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2Cor 9:6-7 NASB)

Now isn't it amazing that Paul relates the principle of seed-time and harvest to giving? Giving is like planting seed. Whatever seed we plant (ie give away), we will reap a harvest later. With that harvest in, we will then have more seed to plant, which will result in an even bigger harvest, and even more seed to plant later!

This my friends, is the economics of the kingdom of God! :-)

"But I don't have enough to give! I barely have enough to tithe!" Opps! Erroneous statement, we should ALWAYS have enough to tithe. Refer to previous post for explanation on tithe. :-)

Look, God understands that we have needs to meet, so He does not demand that we give more than we are able. How can we honestly give cheerfully if we do not have enough left to buy milk powder right? He wants us to purpose in our heart, ie be deliberate in our giving, being good stewards and thus be able to give cheerfully.

Therefore do not feel compelled or pressured to give and then give grudgingly (ie unwillingly). When the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to this truth, it set me free from guilt whenever I find that I am unable to or feel like giving.

If you have not purposed to give, and you are not willing to give, for goodness sake DON'T give! Don't feel pressured or compelled when the offering bag comes around to you or when people come up to you for donations. Please don't give out of guilt or compulsion. God wants us to give cheerfully, even hilarously enjoy giving... because that is how He gives!

Let me say that again... God enjoys giving! I want you to banish from your heart any thought that may suggest that God gives grudgingly or unwillingly.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (2Cor 9:8 NASB)

This is my favourite verse on money, prosperity, giving. It says that as we purpose to give, God is able to make ALL His grace abound to us so that ALL our needs will be met and we can give out of ABUNDANCE... not out of poverty or lack! Do you remember those fund raising campaigns like "Sacrifice your lunch and give to ......"? This is what I call a "poverty mentality", thinking that there are only limited funds to go around. Our God is not POOR! Our God is able to provide for our lunch AND enable us to give out of our abundance!

So having all sufficiency in everything, we will have an abundance for every good deed. Problem with us is that we tend to mistake our wants as needs. This is where many Christians struggle. We need to get ourselves to a place where we can say to our Lord that "I have been crucified with Christ, the world has no hold on me anymore... I have overcome the world!" (Gal 2:20, 1 John 2:16, 5:4,5) If we are lusting after the world, no amount of money will satisfy that lust.

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. (2 Cor 9:10-11 NASB)

Notice that it is God who provides the seed for sowing and bread for food. Why separate mention of seed and bread? It means that God supplies BOTH for our needs and our giving! Even our giving is given by God! We do not have to sacrifice any of our needs in order to give! What an amazingly wonderful God!

And notice that God will not only supply but also multiply our seed for sowing! So the seed He has supplied, He will also multiply. So that means He will be able to grow my investments and savings, so I will have more to give.

And only that, we will be ENRICHED in EVERYTHING (not just money) for all liberality, ie for all generosity. God wants His people to be generous people... giving graciously like He does. We are to give our money, our time, our care, our things, our home, our hospitality, our prayers.... we will be enriched in everything so we can give generously!

Ultimately it is to produce thanksgiving to God. All good works give glory to God. You know what? We exist primarily to give glory to God. Let us not forget that.

And it all begins when we plant that first seed...

Hallelujah!

I find all throughout the bible that the biblical purpose for money is always in relation to giving and doing good works. It is never about accumulating it for our own self, or for our family or even for our church.

You see, when we become generous and are able to give away, it is because we believe He is generous and we trust in His willing supply. But when we become stingy (some people call it prudent :-)) and horde our money, it is because we don't believe He is generous and is willing supply. We are in effect trusting in our savings, not on God's supply.

The question should NOT be "Is it wrong to seek riches?", it should really be "How much can we give? What good works can we do that will result in thanksgiving to God?" When we ask those questions, God will cause all grace to abound to us and multiply our seed for sowing!

And the amazing promise of verse 6 is that when we sow BOUNTIFULLY, God will enable us to WILL REAP BOUNTIFULLY!

I tell you we can never out give God! Indeed, God is looking for such people for Him to bless the world through them.

So instead of quibbling over our tithe and asking "Do we tithe 10% nett or gross? Before or after tax?" We should be challenging each other to bring the TOTAL TITHE (ie 10% GROSS) and see who can give more ABOVE that :-)

Can we be like Rick Warren, who challenges himself to give 1% more every year? Can we get to a point where we KEEP only 10% of our income? Can you imagine giving 80% of all your income? (not counting tithe lah!)

Hey, I tell you when we get to that point, that 10% we keep is going to be much, much, much, much more than the 80% we are keeping today!

We can never out give God man!

For His Glory!