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Missions Giving through the Local Church, p.2
Transcript
1 Corinthians chapter 16. Let’s always remember folks, the gospel’s what we’re about. When the apostle Paul went to the educated cultured, esteemed folks in the cosmopolitan city of Corinth he said, I determine to know nothing among them, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That’s our job. Wherever we go, wherever we journey, wherever our ministry is, we’re standing on the clear biblical gospel. Just let God use it, if he doesn’t use it, that’s all we’ve got, we don’t have anything else to take on. The gospel of Jesus.
1 Corinthians chapter 16, we’re preaching through this book, and wouldn’t you know it, the next verse deals with mission giving. So I’m just going to pick up where we were, 1 Corinthians 16:1-6. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. But I will come to you after I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia; and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, that you may send me on my way wherever I may go.”
Now if you remember, chapter 15, that long thorough chapter is all about the glories of the resurrection. I mean the apostle Paul has told us because the resurrection is true, we are no longer in our sins. Jesus died and took the punishment for our sins and after the full complete omniscient satisfaction for punishment was taken, God said arise my love and Jesus was raised form the dead, stating to everyone, everywhere throughout the entire universe that the payment has been made, the holy demands of God against sin are satisfied, those people now that are God’s are free from their sins. The resurrection says we’re free from sin. And then we went on and told us about the fact that the resurrection means that we’re going to be released from these perishable, corruptible, temporal, diseased, hurting bodies with bad backs and cancer and all these other things, and after the resurrection we’ll get a new imperishable, incorruptible, glorified heaven bent, fit, Christ-like body that we will dwell in for all eternity.
So Paul’s established a wonderful foundation in chapter 15. Now he says since that is gloriously true, and with that as a backdrop he says now, let’s talk about some of the every day practical responsibilities as a child of God. Since that is true, we live a certain way in the here and now. Since that is true, let’s get down to brass tacks, down to where the rubber meets the road, Paul is saying, and talk about some things for just a moment.
So in essence Paul in verse 1 when he says “now concerning the collection for the saints,” he begins to talk about practical giving, he talks about them doing it regularly every week he says to do it, he’s simply saying, since you’re in a temporal world and you are now housed in a temporal body, and since the Bible clearly teaches that everything that this world is made up of is going to perish, 2 Peter literally says, God’s going to burn everything up, melt everything down and recreate a new heaven and a new earth, and he says, you’re going to be resurrected, gain a grand new, gain a brand new body, and that new body will fit that new earth God is going to make.
So here’s what he’s saying, since all this is temporal, there’s no need in making a great investment down here in this world. You ought to be giving to the work of the ministry, giving to the spread of the gospel, giving to winning souls, giving to training pastors around the world, so we can invest in that new heaven and that new earth that we’ll be in for eternity. Paul knows what’ he’s doing. Paul knows when to talk about giving to missions. He’s built it just perfectly here. You might want to jot down these couple of verses, as a matter of fact my sermon’s entitled “Mission Giving through the Local Church.” Missions giving through the local church. Because that’s the way mission giving ought to be. Now it doesn’t mean its a sin to give in any other place, any other time, but your main major priority is through the local church. And if you don’t have a local church that has a world missions heart, and is practically and personally involved in world missions, therefore you don’t feel comfortably generously giving, then find a church that is.
Paul’s going to show us missions giving is to work through the local church. Now let me say something. The Bible does teach that its wise to save. You ought to have a saving account. Save some money for the kids college, save some money for retirement, the Bible teaches that. I’m not talking about the fact that every single solitary person ought to live in a cardboard box in a ditch and just give everything away. No, the Bible says we ought to save. But the Bible teaches we ought to save for a rainy day, not for a world wide flood. Amen. And I know the businessmen and their job is to take large amounts of money and invest, that, that’s God’s will, God blesses that, but the point is, what’s your motive for that business investment, what’s your motive for those profits God will give you. Do you want to be involved in investing in eternal things, or just temporal things.
I’ll never forget reading Billy Graham’s book, and basically speaking a lot of folks have supported Billy Graham, but there are three immensely wealthy Americans that really supported Billy Graham for all those years and kept him rolling right along. Because they viewed their great investments and their great wealth as, as something they wanted to invest for eternity for God’s glory.
So Paul here, he’s talking about the offering, and he’s talking about it against the backdrop of the glories of the resurrection and the new heaven and the new earth and the new life we’ll have there in our new resurrected bodies. And he begins first of all telling us something about the purpose of the offering. That would be your first major point, the purpose of the offering.
We see that in verse 1, the first few words. “Now concerning the collection for the saints.” Now let me say first of all, this is a missions offering that he’s talking about them receiving. Its for ministry needs outside of the local church in Corinth. He says its for the saints. Now this is missions because the saints referred to the, the believers in Jerusalem, who were experiencing great persecution and great poverty, they were in a very difficult situation. The saints in Jerusalem, where the church began, where, were living in a greatly overpopulated city, it was a religious mecca of the day, everybody came in there. And you remember thousands and thousands had been saved on the day of Pentecost and many of those new believers who had come into Jerusalem, for the celebration of Pentecost got saved and decided to stay, because there were no Christians back home. Matter of fact, there were no Christians anywhere until the church started. then of course the Apostles and a few other followers.
So they are all staying in Jerusalem, they are crowded in there, they are overpopulated and they are facing severe persecution. I mean, they, you couldn’t get a job if you were a Christian, you couldn’t hold a job, you were fired form your job, the Jewish authorities were stirring up great persecution against the church. So the Apostle Paul, the man God led out of Jerusalem, to go to the non-Jewish Gentile world, everywhere he goes he talks about taking up offerings for the needs of those saints back in Jerusalem. Now, this is missions giving though. Let me explain something very carefully. The mother church for planet earth was the church in Jerusalem. That’s where it all came from. And all missions work in this day stemmed from that church. So, if you bless that church, if you helped that church, if you gave to the poor in that church, you were strengthening world missions work.
In one sense giving to the church in Jerusalem, is the equivalent of what we do when we give money to respectable missions boards. It goes there, then it goes out from there to the ends of the earth. That’s the way they viewed the church in Jerusalem, it wasn’t just giving to the poor, then over here we give to missions. No, when you gave to the poor in Jerusalem, you were helping the mother church that was responsible for sending out missionaries to evangelize the world. So it was one and the same, I’m convinced in Paul’s mind. Look at I don’t have time. You might just want to jot down the reference of Romans 15:25-27. Its an interesting cross reference. Because in Romans 15:25-27 Paul says in essence this. He says, the Jews and the church at Jerusalem, gave us Gentiles the gospel. The Jews in Jerusalem minister to us in spiritual terms, they gave us the gospel. He said, so us Gentile churches ought to invest back in them materially in money. And we know that principle throughout the Bible. God calls men to lead in your churches, to minister to you, to you spiritually, and then God says the church is to make sure they’re taken care of materially.
So Paul says, its the same with the Gentiles and the Jews. The Jews brought the Gentiles the gospel, the Gentiles should make sure the Jewish church, through their time of poverty, is blessed materially. So what’s the point here. The point here is that the Jewish church was a world missions church. And giving to the poor there was missions giving.
Notice in our text, 1 Corinthians 16, down in verse 6. Paul adds something else here about financial support. He says, “and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, that you may send me on my way wherever I may go.” Now, that’s the first, in verse 1 he says, make sure you take up a collection for the saints in Jerusalem, which also meant for world missions.
Now down in verse 6 he says, and when I come by, I’m going to stay with you for a while, and maybe you can “send me on my way” wherever God tells me to go minister next in my world missions work. What’s Paul saying. Paul’s saying, by sending me on my way it means you’ll take up money to support me financially too. So in Paul’s mind all of this is about missions giving. This is not giving to the local church. We’ve taught that, we’ve preached that, there’s biblical principles about that. And I believe the, the tithe should be for the local operating budget. But Paul is talking to the church at Corinth about giving in addition to the tithe that goes for the local operating expenses of a church. This is giving for missions work outside the church.
And I believe when Paul says give to me, or if he says to give the poor saints in Jerusalem, it was under one canopy of giving for the effort of world evangelization. It could very well be that as Paul encouraged these churches to give that they just put it in one pot. Look at it this way, they had their local operating budget, they brought their tithes there, then regularly in addition to that, they brought money and put it in another pot or another place, and they would distribute out of that for the poor saints in Jerusalem, and for Paul’s world missions work. Now I can’t say emphatically from scripture they just had one offering and they distributed out of that, but its very, very possible and very, very likely because of all that we understand.
So it could very well be, are you listening, it could very well be that in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul is saying the exact same thing we do today, that is support your church through the local, through your tithes, but also have a regular gift to go to world missions and just distribute out of that. For world missions work. Its there in the text, I’m not making something up. And so we have a very solid biblical basis for the way we do missions here at First Baptist Church. As a matter of fact, as I’ve stated clearly, giving to the poor brothers and sisters in Jerusalem was giving to missions, because missions came out of that church. But its the same way in our day. Do you know that every time you give your faith commitment gifts, whether you give weekly or monthly or quarterly or a family or two gives annually. God bless you for doing that, I’m glad everybody doesn’t do that, it would be kind of hard to have a missions program, but some folks, that’s the way it works. And that’s fine, that’s wonderful. But anyway, when you give your gift, you know, that we support three pastors in India who are poor, and couldn’t do their evangelistic work without our financial support. We support one pastor in Pakistan, whose too poor, unless he receives our support. We support another pastor in Burma, who would not be able to be free to preach the gospel in villages and communities where Jesus is not known unless we gave him support. We support two pastors in Kenya, once again, very poor men, who unless we gave them some financial support would not be free to preach the gospel. One in Indonesia, one in the Sudan, one in Thailand, one in Romania, so really nothing’s changed has it.
Paul says, to this church, give to the poor saints in Jerusalem, that’s giving to missions, we’re doing the same thing today, we’re giving to poor leadership around the world enabling them to share the gospel to the ends of the earth. Its neat how the principles never change. We’ve built five churches in South Africa out in the bush. Now why did we pay for and build those churches? They’re too poor to build their own. And that will help them expand the gospel to the regions around their villages. The villages some of which do not have the gospel. We’ve built churches in Guatemala, in Brazil, we’ve repaired churches in Jamaica, West Indies. And other places around the world. Why? They are too poor to do it themselves. So a significant portion of our present world missions work is helping poor brothers and sisters, so that they will be enabled to preach the gospel in their regions of the world.
So I’m saying all that so say, and well let me say this too. We train pastors in South Africa, India, Romania, Honduras, and you saw it on the video tape, why do we do that. Those pastors are too poor to get training. And I hate to admit it, but the whole lot of the training you pay to get ain’t worth getting. Its unbiblical, it pragmatic, its built on humanism, not on Bible. And so but they are unable financially to get any training. So once again there’s a strong connection between helping poor believers and giving to world missions. And so much of what we do through our faith commitment gifts goes to help those who are just too poverty stricken to meet their own needs as far as their ministry needs. So the purpose of this offering was world missions. Its world missions.
Number two, and I’ll be brief. Notice the prominence of this offering. By prominence I mean who widespread it was, this type of giving was widespread. If you look at verse 1, we’ll just read it all again. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” Now, two subpoints here. First of all there was, it was prominent among the individual churches. He says, just like I told the individual churches in Galatia, that they ought to be giving regularly to world missions, so I’m telling you the church at Corinth that you ought to give regularly above your gift for your local operating budget to help world missions.
And we know from the word of God Paul also taught the churches in Acacia, that all of then should be giving this regular missions gift, the churches in Macedonia he said, they should be giving regular gifts. The church in Philippians and now we know Galatians and Corinth, what’s the point. It was prominent, it was understood in the New Testament that every local church should regularly be giving financially to support the spread of the gospel. It’s a clear biblical principle. And I love what God has led us into, where we are practically, personally and strategically and directly involved. We don’t sit here at First Baptist and throw some money at a distant mission board which really is just a little guilt money so we don’t have to get our hearts and lives involved in missions. Just throw a little money at a board out there and say oh, we’re missions minded.
I’ve had people say well, ya’ll are not very missions minded, you don’t have a WMU or a Brotherhood. Or, RAs or GAs. You know what RAs stands for. Running around. Now don’t misunderstand me, those are wonderful programs. If those programs work for your church fine, but it doesn’t mean you’re missions minded, it just means you’ve got a program. And, somebody say amen on that. You’ve come out of Baptists churches, you know what I’m talking about. And we’re not against those, we just choose not to have those, but folks, the goal is for the entire church family to have a heart for world evangelization, because that’s where God’s heart is. It doesn’t necessarily mean my emotions are up about it all the time, it just means when I get in this book my God’s heart is about that all the time, and I love my God and I want to be about what he’s about.
I want to be on mission with God. He’s about the task of making sure he gets praise from every tounge, every, every, every nation, every tongue, every tribe and every people, and he’s given me the privilege of helping get the gospel there, so he can get praise from them. And I’m thrilled to get in on it. Its a joy to get in on, so its prominent among, among the individual churches. Every church. And how do we do it here. We just have week in and week out, we have on the offering envelops, a place where you can say, here’s my commitment for the next year, I’m breaking it down by weeks or months, and I’m giving to missions above and beyond my tithe to the local operating budget and in addition to whatever gifts I”m giving for the new building expense.
Now B, the second subpoint, its to be prominent among individual Christians. Among individual Christians. Notice what he says in verse 2. Paul writing to this church in Corinth says, “On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save,” now remember the word saved is the Greek word that we get our word thesaurus from. The word thesaurus means a treasury of words. He says, let each week, or at least regularly it doesn’t, it doesn’t, God doesn’t mean legalistically you’ve got to do it absolutely every week, it could be monthly or quarterly, but he means regularly. I believe the more regular the better, because you listening. The gift is still more for us and our spiritual benefit than it is for world missions. This is some thing where God is sitting around saying, boy, I’d like to get more people saved, if you folks would just cooperate. No, the point is, we get to get in on it with God. Listen, God’s going to get glory from every tongue, tribe, people and nation. He’s a sovereign God, he’s just saying, you want to join me on it, I want to be on mission with God. I want to be a part of it, I want to get in on it. Boy I’m glad I’m serving a God that’s not dependent upon me. Amen. Whewww, glory hallelujah.
You’d better be glad that you’re in a church that’s not dependent upon the pastor. We’d be sunk in a New York second brother. This church is dependent upon the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Lord, King of kings, Jesus Christ. And he will not fail. And cannot fail.
Well, he says, every individual Christian. Now see, this giving for missions isn’t just for the brotherhood. Its not just for the women in the WMU. Giving to missions isn’t just for the vacation Bible school offering you take up and try to find some mission to give to. Its not just for those few that have a well they have a heart for missions. You don’t need a heart for missions, you just need to obey God and get in on it. Don’t wait until you have a heart for anything. You do what God says in his word.
Here’s what you’ll find out, are you listening. If God puts missions as a high priority, if God says I want to bring glory to myself by getting the gospel to all the peoples of the earth, and God says I command you to go do it and go be a part of it, you don’t wait until you feel like it, you obey God and you know what you’ll find out. Your feelings will catch up with the will of God. You’ll start getting a heart for it after you obey God. And you know what, we live in a whole country that would do real good if they’d start doing their responsibilities, not doing what they feel like. Are you hearing me. We are sitting in a country that’s going to hell on a banana peel, and the reason why is because we’ve got all this humanistic based feel like i want to be fulfilled, self actualization, I want to, my life to be full. No, people need to find out what their biblical responsibilities are, and then God will meet their needs. Amen.
Missions giving isn’t for a few wealthy in the church that have more money than they know what to do with, even though they ought to give generously. Paul said, how did he word it. “On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save,” that means into the treasury of the church, “as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” Paul is simply saying this. When I get there, I don’t want to go around talk to people about giving money to missions. I want you to have it all collected and you can just distribute it out to me. And that’s what we do through missions. We put it all in one pot, have an extensive world missions budget, and then we distribute it out, and we just give regularly just as the Bible teaches.
[evening session 22:07]
Roman numeral three, the procedure for the offering. The procedure for the offering. Now first of all the first sub-point A is to be based on faith. It’s to be based on faith. We see this in the middle of verse 2, when he says you’re to put aside and save as he may prosper. As you prosper. Now prosper here doesn’t mean to have in excess. We think of prosperity today to have, oh, I’ve just got everything I want, I’ve got an abundance. That’s not what the Bible text means. Prosper means having some thing instead of nothing. Prosper means you’ve got something materially that week. And he says, as God blesses you each week materially, make sure a portion of that goes to world missions.
Maybe you get a monthly check or a bi-monthly check or quarterly check if you own a business, I don’t know how it works with you, but as God gives you materially, make sure you take out a portion and make sure a portion of that goes to mission. But he says as you may prosper. Here’s what I think is in mind and we see this more clearly in another text that we’ll look at in just a moment, but he’s saying, now you know now that God’s going to prosper you. You know now that God’s going to take care of his children. I mean, God’s not going to neglect you in the future. And so by faith you make a commitment in your heart, God as you bring it in the future, by faith I’m going to give a percentage of it, some of what you entrust to me, to your world missions work. Through my local church. It’s got to be based on faith. its trusting God that out there in the future he’s going to take care of you and you’re going to make sure part of that gets to the mission field.
Now, let me give you some examples of how this faith based giving may work. I had a man come up to me one time, and, and this is a unique special thing, but it is a perfect picture of faith commitment giving, and this person said, brother Jeff, I just really feel that I want to, to take my, my advertising budget for my business and I want to take an amount every week out of that advertising budget, I’m not going to advertise, I’m just going to, just not do that. now he had still a lot in his advertising budget, but he said, I’ll take this much out and every week I’ll give it to our outreach work at the church. Now, that may be one of the ways God wants you to do it. You find a way, you say, God if you prosper in this case, this businessman said, God if you keep prospering in my business like you have been, I don’t need to advertise as much, I’ll take a portion of that and make sure it gets to, to our outreach work at the church. That’s the principle, the faith principle of faith commitment giving.
Another man shared with me, this has been I think our first world impact conference and he was a man who restored automobiles and it wasn’t his main job, sort of a hobby, made some money through it, he had a car he’s restoring, he said man, that car right there, I’m going to just, whatever I think God may bring in materially through selling that car, nice car, thousands of dollars, he said, I’ll commit to give that to missions. So he says, if God prospers me through that channel, that’s committed, that’s faith, I’m trusting faith God’s going to do it, I’ll give that to missions.
Well I, we’ve had a lot of students, and this has been encouraged a lot, we’ve asked students to consider giving up one coke a day for missions. Just one, now think about it. Just one coke a day. Now if you guesstimate that that coke is going to cost 75 cents, in a year that’s $275 dollars for world missions. So shame on you adults that are giving a few hundred dollars to missions, you’re not even giving a coke a day for God to spread the gospel around the world. But anyway for a student that might be where you are and that’s wonderful. You’re saying, God, I, I’m going to trust you’re still going to be providing for me, a coke a day. If you keep providing enough money to have at least one coke a day, I’m going to give that coke up and give that to missions.
Another person in his business enterprise this last year had a new division of his business that he was advancing, it was already well under way, looked like it was going to go well, and he told me, my faith promise is, if God prospers that, blesses that, X percentage of that goes to world missions. Now that’s in addition to his tithes and gifts to the building fund. And I praise God, God did bless it, it did go well, and its meant many thousands of dollars. Now a lot of us aren’t in those kind of businesses, we can’t do that type of money. But some can. There are men who said, well, I’m just going to by faith think about what my best bonus may be this next year at work, not my regular income, but my best bonus, I’m just going to divide that up by twelve and commit to give that, just by faith trust God, that he’ll bring that in and as it comes in, I’ll give it to missions.
Some other folks do what’s called moonlighting for missions. Maybe your kids are raised, I don’t know what it may be you’ve got time, that you, you, you’ve got time to kill. A lot of folks do. And you take a job a couple of days, a couple of nights a week. And say, Lord, you prosper to give me that job and I’ll commit that amount that comes through that avenue to world missions through my local church. And then for some folks, maybe its not a unique avenue or channel, you just feel like God’s impressed me to take X percentage of my income and that percentage is going to go to world missions. That’s not unspiritual. Now here’s my, here’s my challenge to you, here’s my goal, go to God with it. Go to God with it. See what he says. Don’t figure this thing intellectually, don’t figure it out with a calculator, figure it out between you and God, nobody’s going to know about it but you and God anyway. But by faith look at what he tells you to do.
And I think I don’t think I should ask you to do anything I’m not willing to do and, and years ago, God just impressed me that, that Pam and I ought to give our outside income to missions and, and if you have folks wanting you to preach and speak and teach, you, you can bring in a pretty good amount of money that way. And fortunately for me, you take care of me and my family very well. I’m to like most pastors, most pastors shouldn’t’ give that money, they need that money just to pay bills. Most Baptist pastors need the revivals and speaking engagements they, so they shouldn’t do what I’m doing, but its amazing how much more I get now that I don’t keep it. Its absolutely astonishing what God’s done.
For most of us that won’t work, not expecting you, not asking you to do that, but that’s what works for us. So what, what, where, how could God maybe do that for you. Who knows, what may God tell you. I don’t know what God may tell you. He may tell you less than what I’d tell you, he may tell you more, get with God. See what he might lead you to do.
So its based on faith, God by faith I trust that you may bring this in out there, I’m going to tell you something, get in on a business venture with God as your partner for world missions. Now don’t forget out there in something foolish, now a lot of people do silly things, they get up and say, God if I win the lottery by faith. I’ll give part of it to missions. No, look in a practical way at, at where it might come in. Something you hadn’t thought about.
Well, its based on faith, secondly, under the procedure, its committed in advance. Its committed in advance. Now I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, do that, 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is continuing to elaborate on this giving to missions as he writes this letter, 2 Corinthians, and he talks about it extensively in chapters 8 and chapters 9, but I want you to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 1-5, as we talk about this fact that it ought to be committed in advance, not given in advance, but you commit to giving it ahead of time. Now in verse one of writing to the Corinthians, again about this same offering we’ve been looking at back in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. He says, “For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints;” giving this gift for this ministry to the saints in Jerusalem. “for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.”
I love Paul, he’s a great pastor, he says, now church at Corinth, now I don’t even have to talk to you about this, I know you’re going to big, give a big huge giant gift to missions, as a matter of fact, I’ve already told the Macedonians you’re going to do that, and as a matter of fact, the Achaians are already stirred up to do something, because they’ve heard what you’re going to do. Boy, he’s putting them on the spot. I mean, he’s just putting them on the spot. He says man, I’m going to tell you, and notice that he keeps going, I love verse 3. He says, but even though verse 2 he says I know you’re going to come through, then in verse 3, “But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, you may be prepared;” verse 4. “lest if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared”, that’s unprepared to give a big generous offering, “we—not to speak of you—will be put to shame by this confidence.”
He said, now before i get there and actually get the money, I’m going to send some of the brethren ahead to, work with you and make sure that we won’t be disappointed. What’s he’s saying. The brethren are going to go ahead and get you to commit in advance. Are you with me. And then when I come, then the actual giving will start. But they are going to come get you ready in advance.
Now look at verse 5. “So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren,” that’s the three brothers that are going in advance, to get them to commit in advance. He urged those brethren, “that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift,” They are going to go on before me, and they are going to get you committed up front. To make sure its going to come through.
Now, I, would you indulge me to share with you the hypothetical examples of Dr. Paul Smith, the great missions pastors, a great pastor, great missions leader of the Peoples Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada. Now Dr. Paul is with Jesus now, but he gave these three examples, and, and it just, it grabbed me, and I’ve never gotten away form it. Here’s what he said happened. Hypothetically. Titus is one of the brethren that Paul sent in advance to get them ready, to get them committed to give, not start the giving, to get the commitment ready. And so Titus also had two godly men that Paul appointed to go with him, so Titus and these two godly men arrive in Corinth way ahead of Paul. And they start trying to get the offering ready. So what did Dr. Paul Smith said they did, they started going door to door to church members. Now we don’t do it that way, but he said they probably did it that way. And the first door he went to was a farmer named Mr. Jones. Titus and two brethren, (knock, knock, knock) knock on Mr. Jones’ door. Mr. Jones looks out through the, the, the crack in the lattice and sees its Titus and to other associate pastors sent ahead from Paul. To get the offering ready. And, and Mr. Jones does what a lot of folks do on Monday night visitation, acts like he’s not home. So Titus, (knock, knock, knock), knocks a little bit harder, and said, Mr. Jones are you there, and Mr. Jones rather sheepishly finally comes to the door, cracks the door open, and before Titus can say a word, Mr. Jones the farmer says, “now Titus, I know why you’re here, you’re here in front of Paul coming to get the offering, you’re here to, to get, get the offering, and, and I just want to tell you, I, I’m a farmer, the crops haven’t come in yet, I don’t have anything, and, and I just, I can’t be a part of it”. And Titus says, “no, no, no, before you close the door, I’m not coming now to get the offering. I’m coming now to see what you can lookout there in the future and see that God might bring in, between now and the time Paul gets here and if by faith, if God brings it in, you’ll just commit to give it to this missions offering, Paul’s going to take up”.
Mr. Jones says, “you’re not here to get the money now?”, “No, I’m just here to get a commitment now. That if God prospers you and brings it in you’ll give it”. He said, “now that’s different”. He said, “you know what, as a matter of fact”, he said, “I’ve got a hundred acres out there of wheat, and I’ve got a hundred acres over here of barley, and a hundred acres over here of corn, I tell you what, if the crops come in good, I tell you, I’ll take half of my wheat crop, and whatever proceeds I get out of half of that crop, when the harvest comes in, I’ll give that to missions”. So you know what Titus did, being a spirit filled, godly, biblical based man. He pulled out a blue envelope. He said, he said, “well, let’ me this this down”. So he had the faith commitment, by faith, he made the commitment said, good, that’s a good one, let’s go to another one.
And so Titus and the two brethren went on to a man named Mr. Brown. And he knocked on Mr. Brown’s door. Well, Mr. brown did about the same thing, he knew what it was all about, he just knew that Titus and the fellows had come to get the money up, he sheepishly comes to the door, opens the door, before Titus can say a word, old Brown says, “now Titus, I want to tell you, I just don’t have any money right now, I, I don’t think I can do much for that offering, I apologize”, he starts to close the door, but before old Brown can close the door, Titus sticks his foot in. And he said, “Now Mr. Brown, I want to tell you something, I want you to know I’m not here to get the money. That’s not what Paul sent us here. I’m here just to get you by faith to look out there in the future and see a way God might bring some money in and if God does bring it in, you’ll just commit to give that to missions when Paul gets here”. And old Brown was a cattleman and Brown said, “you know, now that’s a little different”. He said, you know, now he’s the one with the ten heifers, he said, “I’ve got ten heifers. And, and they’re with calves, I tell you what”, he said, “I’ve got a lot of other cattle, a lot of other things going on”, he said, “if, if those, if those cows have calves, I tell you what, I’ll sell those calves and whatever I get in, I’ll give that to the mission offering”. So Titus being spirit filled, Bible based man of God that he is, pulled out a blue envelop. And he wrote down Mr. Brown, ten calves. And so he said, that’s going good, and he put that one in his pocket, and he went to the third door, and it was Mr. Smith, [knock, knock, knock], same scenario, knocked on Mr. Smith’s door, very apologetically Mr. Smith comes to the door and opens the door and says, “Titus, I know you’re here to get the money”, and Titus went through his story, “No, no, no you, you’re just like the rest of them. Mr. Smith I want you to know I’m not here to get the money. What we want to do is get you ready to give the money. We want you to look out there and see a way God might bring the money in. And you’re going to by faith say God I promise, if you’ll bring the money in that way, I’ll give it to missions.”
Now, Mr. Smith here is a developer, and he was about 3/4 of a way through with that new mall in Corinth they were building. And his cash flow was real tight. You know we’ve learned over the years there are two kinds of people that don’t’ have any money. The poor and the wealthy that have it tied up in projects all the time. So a man, so Mr. Smith didn’t have any cash on him, it was tied up, it hadn’t got his payment, and he said, “well, now if you didn’t come to get the money, you came just to get a commitment, he said, as a matter of fact I’ve put a bid in on the new subway system in Corinth”. He said, “I tell you what, if, if I get that contract on that subway system, I tell you what, I’ll commit X amount of dollars off of that, those proceeds and I’ll give that to missions”. So he made God his business partner, so old Titus, being the spirit filled, Bible based man of God that he was pulled out a blue envelope. And on that envelope he wrote Mr. Smith, 25 thousands dollars, whatever amount it was that he thought that he thought he could commit off of that next development project.
Now that’s what we mean by committed in advance. Its not a pledge, its a promise to God.
Well, that’s the procedure for the offering. Now notice lastly the protection for the offering. The protection for the offering. now first of all, A. under this, Paul says, the offering has to be protected from individual greed. Paul says, the first thing we need to do to protect this offering from the greed that’s in all of our hearts. Now I want you to listen very carefully. Every single solitary one of us sitting in this room has a greedy heart. I’ve got one, you’ve got one, all of God’s children got one, they are just suppose to be in submission to the Holy Spirit and the authority of the word, but we all have a greedy heart. And, and Paul understood that very, very well. If you’re still over in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, I hope you are, if you’re not, turn there, let’s notice what Paul said about we’ve got to protect against individual greed hurting this offering.
Look at verse 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul says, “So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you” now we went through with all of that “and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift” now don’t miss this, “and not affected by covetousness.” Did you hear that. If you heard that, say amen. Paul said, I had to send Titus and the brethren ahead because I know your flesh is a whole lot like my flesh. And he says, I know when the Holy Spirit of God was moving on you Corinthians earlier. When you were under the word of God, the Holy Spirit was moving, and God convict your heart and joyously you made a commitment to give X amount of money to missions, that was God, but then you got back out into the world and then the work a day world came along and some old lost unregenerate Baptist that you work with said you’re a nut and you go to a cult church and who would commit that kind of money to missions.
And all of a sudden you begin to waiver, and all of a sudden you covetousness, greediness, begin to come in and all of a sudden the alluring things of the world, you might want to have, that started influencing you, and at the first when the Holy Spirit said get $50, 000 to missions and that was God, then covetousness came in and you said, that was really just $5000. And for some others, when God was really speaking to you the Holy Spirit said, commit $5000 this year for world missions and, and you got out in the world and covetous came in and you said, no, that was really $500. And for some of us, the, the Holy Spirit just said, give $500 the next 12 months is what you ought to commit to give to missions, and then covetous came in and you said, no that was just $50. You know how I know that. Been there, done that. That’s Jeff Noblit right there.
But if you get people under the teaching of the word of God, the preaching of the word of God , the Holy Spirit of God starts working on our hearts in a conference like this, and if you can get the commitment at that level and at that time, you guard against the influence of covetousness. Folks, is that not Bible, is that not square Bible I’m giving you. So when Paul talks about protecting the offering, he’s not talking about what most Baptists think, make sure the deacons run it, make sure that preacher don’t misuse it. Amen. Naw he said the first thing we need to protect the offering from is our individual greed in our own hearts. Now if I just, if we just got pumped up and fired up and I said, whew, glory to God, you just be faithful this next year, and just week in and week out, and you give something to missions and we’re going to have a missions budget and see how it works, you know what would happen. Covetousness would hit Jeff Noblit and every one of us, and here we’d go. By the end of the 12 months we’d be way low but we greatly decrease the impact of our old covetous hearts when we make a commitment up front.
Now only one or two people will see, only the people that count the money and record the commitments, will see this. But you’ve written it down and the Lord knows it see. You got with God and that will help guard against individual greed. We’re a sight aren’t we. Aren’t we a sight. Oh some of you are squirming right now. You just keep coming, I get hotter than this sometimes. Listen to me, I want to tell you something. This is the church where you can’t stand still. If you join here, I don’t care where you are spiritually, if you join here and you’re not willing to deal with sin and keep growing, you won’t last.
Cause here’s what will happen. If you don’t if you join here and you don’t deal with your sin, your sin will fester under the authority of the word. You see, sin grows, if you’re rebellious, you will be more rebellious under the word than you will out from under the word. Because the word’s like a dam and your old flesh is like the water just gushing and building behind it. Here’s what will happen. You stay long enough without being willing to deal with your sin like I have to deal with my sin and everybody else has to deal with their sin, you’re not willing to deal with your sin, not deal, not willing to deal with your old selfish heart, worldly heart, stubborn heart, all that old junk in our hearts are still there from the old unregenerate past, you’re not willing to deal with that, pretty soon you’ll get involved in some sort of sin, you’ll be exposed for what you are. I’m going to tell you something folks, you ought not to go to church where you can stand still and be comfortable. You standing still you won’t be comfortable here. That’s why some of you won’t be back Wednesday night, you’re standing still. And you just can’t take it any more.
Well, first of all he said, we need to protect this thing from individual greed. Now back over to our main text. Secondly Paul says, we need to make sure we protect this offering from inappropriate use. Paul said, there’s something about this offering, getting in the wrong hands and be wrongly used and, and we need to protect against that happening.
Look at verse 3 and 4 of 1 Corinthians 16. “When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem;” “and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.” Now here’s what Paul says, Paul says, now it would have been perfectly proper for Paul as God’s Apostle to take the offering, receive, get it in his own hands and take it to Jerusalem. Paul said no, we want to guard against even the appearance of evil, and I want you to get two or three godly men and give the offering to them, I’ll give them letters and they can take the offering and my letter of affirmation, of how much the offering is and what its for and take it to Jerusalem, just because we want to make sure nothing inappropriate happens to this money.
Paul said, and I’m not going to be put in a position where somebody can accuse me of inappropriately handling or using this money. We don’t even want to give the appearance of evil. And 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 18 through 21 the apostle Paul says something interesting. He says, when I’m handling, now he’s dealing in the context of money. And Paul says, when I’m handling money, I’m going to do what’s right in the sight of God, but he adds something, he says but also, I want to do what’s honorable in the sight of men. Now here’s what that means. There are some things that are perfectly pleasing to God when your handling money, but the prevailing culture would look on that skeptically, with skepticism rather. And you ought to go ahead and do those other things if you can do those other things and not violate God’s will and compromise God’s scripture, just to make sure you have a good testimony with everybody.
And so, you know, we do a lot of things here at the church because of state law and federal law and common banking practices that we don’t necessarily have to do biblically, but man, the whole society would look on us very skeptically if we didn’t do that. So we do things that are honorable to God, but also honorable in the sight of men as far as we can. Now, what, what are we saying, we don’t want to inappropriately use any of these gifts. And I think you have a right to know as the church how do we go about distributing our funds. Let me give you some guidelines that we follow. First of all, we approach it very prayerfully and very strategically. And here’s what I mean by strategically and I’ll not spend a lot of time here, but I do want to mention these things. One of our highest priorities is to make sure our funds go to reach unreached people groups. That’s people groups who do not have the gospel available yet.
If there’s not a church there, and most of them, there’s not even one missionary there, and most of them we can’t document one Christian there, there’s not one tract or one Bible in their language, people that are not reached. Complete, now there’s varying degrees of unreached, but we try to find people who hadn’t heard about Jesus yet, because we’re convinced why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has had a chance to hear the gospel once. So we try to direct a lot of our energies there. In South Africa the tribal peoples we’ve worked with are largely, not completely, but largely they’re an unreached people group. When we went and trained pastors in India. That was very strategic, because training nationals in India to reach the unreached peoples of India is much wiser than Americans going and trying to reach Indians. Again, trying to be strategic, focusing first of all on unreached peoples.
Secondly, we try to be open to unique opportunities the Holy Spirit brings. One unique opportunity that happened a few years ago was the fall of communism in eastern Europe. And when communism failed the doors were open for the gospel, in a free way for the first time in many, many, many years. And we found that literally thousands of groups were going over to do evangelism, and that was good. We also found that there were a number of established churches and we thought strategically the best way to reach eastern Europe were to take the churches there and train them to be evangelistic.
As you know, we’ve done a lot of that with the Love Baptist Church in Irad, Romania. And they are reporting to us now that for the first time in, 40 or 50 years their lay people are beginning to win lost people to Jesus. Because under communist pressure you couldn’t share the gospel, and so they had to be trained to do that.
Another unique opportunity would be like helping Greg Moore in Honduras. Anytime you can go support someone out of your church and you go train leaders under that missionary, you know its going to be followed up and you know there’s going to be accountability, so you know you are going to get, as one of our elders would say, a lot of bang for your buck. And that kind of influence.
So first of all, unreached people, secondly unique opportunities, the holy spirit opens up. Thirdly we always and will only work through reputable mission boards or mission societies. We only work through boards that have a solid doctrinal statement and have been in existence a long time or at least they have a very credible structure and system whereby they are accountable financially and doctrinally, like our international mission board. We work through them. These are reputable boards. And it also gives you the ability to do something that’s not easy to do, but proper to do, as you talk about, making sure you’re appropriately spending the funds and that is not supporting a missionary whose no longer worthy or qualified to be supported.
And that’s one reason why I think the elders of the church should have chief oversight because the elders are commissioned biblically to guard doctrine. Its hard for a lay person to call a pastor on the mission field on the carpet for his doctrine. Its not hard for me, trust me. If its wrong, I’ll do it, because I have to do it, I’m commissioned by God to do that. And we had a missionary that in this case it wasn’t a doctrinal thing, but his very reputable mission board, been in the business many, many, many years, told him that he and his family didn’t need to go back to the mission field, that they weren’t stable and it wouldn’t be good, it wouldn’t be wise to go. And we were contacted and told the situation, and we agreed with the mission board. Now we don’t just cut folks off, we gave them many months to make sure they had their feet on the ground here in the United States, but those kind of decisions have to be made and having a reputable board to work with is very, very important.
Another thing we’re beginning to do and want to do a much, much better job at is making sure we’ve properly equipped the people who go out from our church. In the past its been, just folks walk up, God’s called me to missions, we get them with the board and they’re gone, that’s unbiblical. We need to make sure they’re grounded. We need to make sure biblically, doctrinally, they’re grounded. We need to make sure they know the biblical principles what a local church is, the, the, the doctrinal principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How to raise up leadership according to biblical principles. And they’ve walked through some of that with us, they hadn’t just been taught it in a classroom. That’s one of the weaknesses on the mission field today, folks aren’t going out from successful biblical churches, they’re going out from seminaries. And so they’ve got head knowledge, which is good, but they don’t have any shoe leather experience. Which is essential.
And so, we’re working hard to do a better job. We’ve already done some of this, and this is almost unheard of, as far as local churches go. But its thoroughly biblical and we’re working to do that and do a better job of it. And another thing is as long as somebody is supported by us they’re accountable to us. We, we, we feel the freedom to hold them accountable for their walk and for their doctrine and for their integrity and their morality. So those are some ways that we purpose very seriously to make sure that we guard and protect these funds from any inappropriate use. Now trust me, we’re learning things every year and every year as we learn things we change and try to do a better job. Those are some things we’re trying to do. Now let me circle the field.
We’ve come a long way, we’ve talked about a lot of things, but in the final analysis, I want you to hear this statement and hear it very, very clearly. Giving is not God’s way for raising money. Giving is God’s way for raising children. In other words, God needs us to give because of what it will do for us spiritually, how it will mature us, how it will help us grow in Christ. That will be more significant than what your gifts do for missions. Giving is not foremost God’s way of raising money. Its foremost God’s method of raising his children.
I received this testimony some times, some time ago in the mail. Its one of our senior adult ladies on a fixed income, on a social security income and i praise God for her transparency and her humility. It deals with her commitment to our building fund, but the principle comes through very clearly, and I want you to listen to her letter. “Dear brother Jeff, I’ve been hesitant in writing to you because I’m ashamed of what I did. Someone who has been a Christian for 40 years should have known better. But God is good to every one of his children. And he whips us when we need it. Its one of the signs that we’re saved. And this is a testimony to God’s glory. As I look back on it, I wonder how I fell into this sin. And I have to admit its because I did not pray before I acted. This is what happened. After making a commitment to God for our building program, and after giving toward the building for a while, I felt I had pledged more than I could handle. Instead of praying and asking God to enable me I quit giving to the building fund. God is long suffering and he let me get away with it for many months. Now I know God doesn’t need our money. And I know the church would not have contacted me, but God could not bless me because of my unfaithfulness. So through God arranged circumstances, my monthly social security check was cut off. They for some reason thought that I had moved. Not knowing this, I wrote checks one month and they began bouncing. So to say I lost it is an understatement. What I did was run around like a chicken with its head cut off until…” then she puts dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. “I remembered my commitment to God for the building fund. And my failure to fulfill it. Well, I borrowed money to cover the bounced checks. And I sat down and figured out how much I owed God on the building fund and how much I’d have to pay each month to fulfill my commitment on time, it turned out to be more than twice as much. but, this time I prayed and asked God to enable me. And you know, without me even telling you, he did. God is so good to me.”
Now that blessed my heart. You know why. Been there, done that. Things got difficult, things got tight, I must have missed God on that commitment. You could have, that’s possible. You might have committed too much, I’m not saying that its not, but did you go to God and ask him. He said, that’s what I didn’t do. And after I had made a big mess, got in a big financial hole, then I turned around and asked God and he was still gracious, brought in money I didn’t know I would get from a source I didn’t know was there. Got my pledge in on time, back on my feet financially. Thank you dear lady for helping all of us tonight, grow a little more in our Christian life. You see, giving is not God’s way of raising money. Giving is God’s way of raising his children.
