Truths About Giving

 
The Problem

1. Our society has become numb and turned off by the constant requests for money.

2. We see pictures of starving children in Africa, AIDS victims, hurricane victims, earthquake victims, tsunami victims, and many other very real and legitimate needs. People today are pretty much inoculated to the point that the first mention of money causes them to tune out and turn off.

3. If we are going to get through to people’s hearts the approach must change. The presentation of a need no longer gets through.

4. People today want to get something when they give something. Sadly, the culture we live in has become so “me” that most people will not give unless they see the personal benefit to themselves.

5. The bottom line is this: presenting a need no longer works because people tune out and turn off before you get half way through the presentation. If they get an e-mail or a letter, they trash it as soon as they see what it is.

The Truth

1. Although the above is all very true, that should not present a problem for the church of the Lord Jesus. However, our approach must take this into account.

2. God is still looking for faithful men and women whose hearts are fully committed to Him, people who will use the resources He entrusts to them for His purposes, and not to satisfy personal desires and greedy wants.

3. In the parable of the servants, the two servants who invested the talents given them were entrusted with more and given greater responsibility.

4. God says that He is looking for those faithful people to whom He can entrust His resources.

5. For many, the reason they don’t have is because they have not given God His portion. They have been unfaithful with what God has entrusted to them so God cannot trust them with more. Back to the parable of the servants: the unfaithful servant had the single talent taken away from him and given to the faithful servant. Jesus said that the unfaithful will have what little they do have taken away from them and given to a faithful servant.

6. If we don’t have enough then we need to examine our hearts to see why because God says He is looking for faithful people to whom He can entrust His resources. Could our problem be that we have misused what was given us? Has God taken away what little we had because we have been unfaithful? It’s pretty simple to check that out. All we need to do is look back at our giving record to see if we have been faithful to give God His portion.

The Solution

1. Giving is the laboratory where God tests and grows our faith.

2. When things are going wrong we need to ask ourselves: Do I trust God’s plan and His promise, or do I go back to trusting my plan and my checking account?

3. God will keep us in this testing and proving phase until our faith grows to where we move past the point of trusting in ourselves and our checking account to the point where we trust God and His promises.

4. Only when we have proven ourselves faithful will we see God entrust His resources to us.