Stand Still, Retreat, or Go Forward?

The Biblical Mandate for Discussing Money and Possessions

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, September 17th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me, please, and follow as I read from two brief portions in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, in which Luke, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is giving us a record of how the Spirit of God worked in the Jerusalem church in the early days and months subsequent to that initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,

0:46 and with respect to that initial and tremendous increase of the church on the very day, the day of Pentecost, recorded in chapter 2, verses 41 and 42, Luke records in verses 43 to 7, in summary form, some of the outstanding characteristics of that congregation. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles, and all that believed were together. And...

1:23 And had all things common, and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them, day by day, those that were being saved. And now over to chapter 4, and a similar record of that same Jerusalem church,

2:09 after it had endured its first baptism of opposition, particularly the leadership, and they had sought the face of God, and God had come and granted, a fresh endowment of His Holy Spirit, resulting in the bold proclamation of the word. And now we have a description again of congregational life at that time there in Jerusalem, verse 32 of chapter 4. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them said that ought of the things which he possessed was his own,

2:52 but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all, for neither was there among them any that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made, made unto each according as anyone had need.

3:28 Now the scriptures do not approach the matter of money and finances in relationship to the work of God and in the life of the church of God as though such things were the companion of off-color locker room talk, or fell within the orbit of the things, which Paul refers to in Ephesians 5.13, concerning which it is a shame even to speak of them. In fact, in addition to these two portions of scripture read in your hearing,

4:09 in which the spiritual health and vigor of the Jerusalem church is described in terms which are top-heavy in their references to the matters of money, and possessions, the entire New Testament oozes with reference to these issues. There are, for example, two whole chapters, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, which deal exclusively with the principles pertaining to a benevolence offering of money organized and administered under the supervision of the apostle Paul

4:53 and his companions. There are literally whole paragraphs, entire parables, and manifold individual texts, which explicitly address the issues of money and possessions in general, and money and possessions in relationship to the kingdom of God, support of the servants of God, and the concerns of the church of God in particular. Again, to just underscore that reality, what would the gospel records be without the memorable and touching incident recorded in Luke 21 and in the parallel passage in Mark

5:37 of Jesus standing by the treasury and beholding how people gave into the temple treasury, and there highlights those who gave something out of their excess, and then focuses upon the verse, the virtue of that widow who casting in her two little coins gave all that she possessed. What would the Sermon on the Mount be if strict of the latter part of chapter 6, beginning with verse 9, where Jesus gives a prohibition, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, and ends in verse 33 with the wonderful positive direction,

6:19 but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. How often have we reflected on Jesus' words spoken after his dealings with the rich young ruler found in all three synoptic gospels, when he said how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And, again, we add to these the warnings of our Lord against covetousness, his graphic description of the rich fool who says to his soul, soul,

7:04 thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Eat, drink, take thine ease. And the Lord says, thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. And that very story is told in a context in which he says, beware of covetousness for a man's life.

7:24 A man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And then the host of references in the epistles, let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him work with his hands, that he may have to give to him who is in need. The specific injunctions in the pastoral epistles concerning the care of widows. And what is true of the New Testament is but an echo, of what is found in the Old Testament as well.

7:57 What would our Old Testament be if we extracted the chapters and portions of chapters in which God describes how the people willingly gave of their substance in order that the tabernacle might be constructed according to the divine pattern. What would our Old Testament be without the record of the special provisions that God wove into the very fabric of his law to make sure, that the priest and the whole tribe of Levi, in caring for the worship of God, would be adequately cared for by the gifts and offerings of God's people. What would our Old Testament be stripped of the dripping accounts,

8:41 the frightening accounts of covetous Achan and his ultimate judgment, of greedy-eyed Gehazi becoming a leper, and of wicked Achan and his ultimate judgment of greedy-eyed Gehazi becoming a leper, of wicked Ahab setting his heart upon the vineyard of another man, and willing to allow his wicked wife to scheme in order to take the life of that man that he might have that possession. I say, and this is only a sampling of the data of the Old and the New Testament, the Bible does not treat the matters of money and possessions, in general,

9:24 or money and possessions, in conjunction with the work of the Kingdom of God under the Old or the New Covenants, as off-color locker talk, or as something beneath the dignity and mobility of serious consideration in the solemn worship of our God. And it is because the Bible addresses these things so freely and frequently, that we have never apologized, for taking up the issues of money and possessions, if they have come to us in the regular course of exposition, or if in the life of our church it has been necessary to address these things,

Trinity Baptist Church's History of Financial Integrity

10:09 in order that the scepter of Christ, that rests upon this church of Christ, might sway us as the people of Christ, to do the will of Christ, to the glory of Christ, in conjunction with money and things. And those of you who have been with us over the history of our three plus decades, will bear witness that never, never, never once in this place, have we ever indulged in carnal emotional pressure, in guilt manipulation, or in irresponsible and unbalanced demands made upon you,

10:51 or in presumptuous commitments that have embarrassed us and shamed Christ. To the praise of God, that statement can be made, and there is not anyone who can bear valid witness against it. And we have come once again in our life as a congregation, in the providence of God, to the place where we need to draw near, to the scepter of Christ, and I'm using that imagery with regard to this word, the entirety of his word being the scepter by which he governs us his people, and take as it were the magnifying glass upon the segment of that scepter,

The Facts Concerning Our Present Financial Situation

11:32 on which he has inscribed certain aspects of his will for his church, and from which I trust we can derive directives that will help us to know the will of Christ, with reference to what we as the people of God ought to do, in the light of the present providences of God. Now most of you know that, in many things perhaps, you may judge me to be an absolute klutz, but in one area you know that I am, and that is when it comes to concocting sermon titles. I frustrate poor Mr. Deutsch when he'll ask me of a given sermon, how should we title it?

12:11 I say, Bill, just anything that isn't ludicrous will be fine. It'll be better than what I can come up with. I'm a klutz at sermon titles. Whatever it takes in the human brain to come up with accurate and attractive, not overblown or artificially clever sermon titles, I got short-circuited somewhere, but if I had to give a title to tonight's sermon, I believe I would entitle it, Stand Still, Retreat, or Go Forward, Which Shall It Be?

12:44 And I feel quite satisfied with that, and when a man is always popping up with the bases loaded and is able to punch one up the middle and knock in two runs, he must have a good feeling, though he may never hit a grand slam home run and get four ribbies. All right? Stand Still, Retreat, or Go Forward, Which Shall It Be? And addressing this subject at the encouragement and direction of my fellow elders and in consultation with the deacons, I want to do so first of all under our first heading, The Facts Concerning Our Present Financial Situation as a Church.

13:27 The Facts Concerning Our Present Financial Situation as a Church. As we indicated some months ago in a special congregational meeting on April 2nd of this year, to be precise, we are thankful that as God has given job stability and a spirit of generosity, that we were able on that occasion, as a congregation, voluntarily and unanimously to commit ourselves to a large unbudgeted expenditure for our missionary endeavor in the Philippines. A commitment that by the time it is fully worked out will be somewhere in the order of $90,000

14:11 and we were able to do that without depleting all of our cash reserves and without in any way tempting God. Again, this past year in the month of May, you as a people above and beyond your regular giving gave just short of a $50,000 once for all benevolence offering to the Trinity Christian School. In recent months you have given on two occasions generous benevolence offerings above and beyond your regular giving both to the cause of the needy in Africa and also in Bosnia. And we are grateful to God that during this entire time the work of God amongst us

14:55 and the budgeted commitments for the support of the ministries here and abroad have not suffered. However, in a recent memo from the chairman of our deacons we were made aware of the fact that a pattern has emerged in the last five or six months which we believe we cannot responsibly ignore. And that pattern indicates that in terms of our regular in-house giving in Trinity Baptist Church and the out-of-house support for some of our ministries that are inter-church ministries such as the academy and some of our missionary endeavors

15:40 that in both of these areas there has been a pattern of continuous shortfall in terms of the budget that has been laid out for that time period. And Mr. Davies in a memo sent to the deacon elders on September the 6th said it appears that offerings will be $12,000 below budget for the year and that these outside income categories collectively will be $20,000 below the budgeted figure. If we are to stay on track as we enter the new fiscal year, perhaps this is the time to call our members to consider the level of their giving.

16:23 If there is not a substantial improvement in our income by the end of calendar year 95, I believe we will have to consider enacting serious alteration of staffing and other expenditure items. And enclosed was a bar graph that showed and I wish I had an overhead projector so all of you could see it clearly, but these bar graphs represent the patterns of giving with the stars would be from December of 93 to December of 94. And you'll notice a red line and above that red line is everything weekly offering above $14,000. But from December through

17:06 to September of this year, only one time has that figure been reached and the connecting line shows our giving much closer to $12,000 per week when the budgeting was made predicated upon this pattern of giving but it is now unfolded at that pattern of giving. Now those are the facts with respect to our present financial situation as a church. And we are not in a panic mode, but as wise stewards we must face facts and seek to respond to them prudently and as men of faith. Now my second heading is this, having laid out the facts

Possible Responses: Presumption vs. Fatalism

17:51 concerning our present financial situation as a church, heading number two, the possible responses to our present financial situation as a church. And it appears to me and I've interacted with Mr. Davies on this matter that there are really only three basic possibilities. And the first is this, to move ahead with increased budgetary commitments and trust God to meet our needs.

18:19 To move ahead with increased budgetary commitments and trust God to meet our needs. Now all of us in the leadership of the church and I believe you, the people of God, if you had your choice, this is what we would all do because this is what we have been able to do in our recent history. From the time we prayed, week after week, and many times when God was providing the means to construct this building in which we sit. Oh God, don't let it be our resting place, make it our launching pad.

18:58 And God has done that. And ministry after ministry has either been extended and expanded or actually brought into being so that in laying out a responsible budget we have been able to move ahead with increased budgetary commitments and to trust God to meet our needs. And as we were able to make a large unbudgeted expenditure to advance the work of God in the Philippines in this past year and in other places as well, we would desire to do the same in the coming year. With the very real possibility of Grace Fellowship in Newark becoming a constituted church, we would like to move ahead

19:42 with generous support of that work until it can be fully self-supporting. We think of the massive building program that is projected down in the Dominican Republic. 1,200 people crowded into and sitting outside of a reconstructed domestic dwelling to hear the word of God. And you see the picture of that beautiful building they've proposed to build and how that money will have to come from sources other than that which they have in that third world situation.

20:15 And we would delight to be able, as we have done in other situations, to say, you can count on $30,000 from us when you reach this state in your building program. We would like to involve ourselves in increased benevolence in many directions. Well, some would say, then forget the bar graphs. Plot out advances and trust God.

20:40 Some would say that. Well, we cannot take that position because what is called faith in such a scenario is really presumption and tempting God. And why do I say that? Well, I want you to look particularly at two texts of Scripture with me.

20:59 In Proverbs chapter 3, a text which addresses the matter of response to need, having a benevolent heart, and hand, God directs His people with these words. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 27. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of your faith to trust God that you'll be able to meet your commitment. No, it says, do not withhold from them to whom it is due

21:42 when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again and tomorrow I will give when you have it by you. It's one thing for me to look upon someone weeping in the second or third row and say, excuse me brethren, I want to give my brother or sister a handkerchief to dry his or her eyes. I have a handkerchief in my hand or readily accessible.

22:16 But for me to promise them a handkerchief and pray that somehow between now and the time I get to the third row the Lord will drop a hanky out of heaven is not faith. It's sheer presumption and fanaticism. We are not to withhold good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power not of our imagined faith but in the power of our hand to give it to them. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again.

22:46 That is, use time and delay as an excuse for selfish grasping upon what you have when you have it by you. It is there to dispense with responsibly and your neighbor is in need and God in his providence has given you the ability to respond. Then you are to respond freely and joyfully. But you see the great principle is when you have it by you, you have it by you when it is in the power of your hand to do so.

23:19 And likewise in the great benevolence section of the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, as Paul is seeking to give principles that will guide the Corinthian Christians, notice what he says in chapter 8, verses 11 to 14. But now complete the doing that as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also, now notice, out of your ability, not out of your faith as to what your ability may be down the road, but out of your present ability in divine providence.

24:03 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according as a man has, not according as he has not. For I say not this, that others may be eased and you distressed, but by equality, your abundance being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become a supply for your want, that there may be equality. He says you now have relatively speaking in hand an abundance and they have lacked. In divine providence the time may come when relatively speaking they will have an abundance, they will have an abundance and you will be in lack.

24:44 But the emphasis here in the collection of this benevolence gift for the poor saints in Judea is exactly the same as Proverbs 3. Do not withhold what is in your hand when it is in the power to give it. As you express the readiness now according to present ability, respond to that need. The same God who has given these texts has said, our Lord Jesus quoting from the Old Testament in Matthew 4, 7, when the devil said, look, you're the son of God, why don't you jump down from the temple?

25:22 Has he not made promises that his angels will be given charge over you to keep you in all your ways lest you dash your foot against the stone? Jesus answers his abuse of Scripture with the right use of Scripture. It is written, you shall not tempt, you shall not make trial of the Lord your God. Yes, God will protect us and provide for us in the way of responsibly doing his will.

25:47 But Jesus said, for me to go up from the pinnacle of the temple and jump in something other than a pursuit of the clearly revealed will of my Father and expect him to send angels to break my fall and keep me from splattering on the rocks below or on the pavement below would be to tempt God. And for us simply to say, well, we see the patterns of decreased giving, but we must never, never stop, let alone retreat. So let's just make increased budgetary commitments and forge ahead and trust God. Let's jump off the temple of irresponsible fiscal planning and trust God to intervene

26:31 and keep us from dashing on the concrete of bringing shame to God and disappointment to those who have been promised help and support. No, my brothers, your leaders will not knowingly tempt the Lord their God. Again, Romans 13, 8 says, O no man anything save to love one another. Do not contract unrighteous debt.

26:56 And if we budget to support given enterprises and apprise people that we are committed to such and such an enterprise and we do not have reasonable grounds to expect we can meet that commitment, it is the same as incurring unrighteous debt. We would then be owing what we could not pay. So that possible response is one that on the surface seems spiritual, but it is pseudo-spiritual. In reality, it is the response of fanaticism and presumption.

27:33 And we bless God that in our 33 years together, God has never allowed us to so deal with the matter of money and things and financial commitments that we have never brought shame to Christ by such fanaticism and presumption. Well, there is a possible second response and some of you have already thought of it. That is to assume that the pattern of giving and income of the past six months will continue and to cut back our budgeted commitment across the board. In other words, halt and retreat.

28:12 That if God surprises us, we can always adjust along the way, but the only responsible thing to do as the brethren anticipate setting out the budget for the coming fiscal year is to cut back our budgeted commitments across the board. I say that some would say this is the only biblical and common sense proposal. And they would argue, using such scriptures as Proverbs 22 and verse 3, a proverb repeated in chapter 27 and verse 12. And this would be a scripture that they would bring forward to justify such a response.

28:52 Proverbs 22 and verse 3. A prudent man sees the evil and hides himself. He takes appropriate defensive action, but the sinful pass on and suffer for it. Prudent elders and deacons in Trinity Baptist Church will see the potential evil of the patterns of giving over the past six months if we do not halt and retreat, and therefore they will prudently hide themselves by a proposed budget that reflects the reality of the patterns of the past months.

29:33 They would say that what this responsibility and power over the past will better act and offer them the means for our Wal-Mart to be put to work, and always grow closer to the everything fitting for a particular time. But, will have a certain bowl over it for us to be verbs and perhaps We can move us from this fleeting moves of growth to gew years to visit every time is bringing us as a church from being an open, generous, giving hand to being a needy, gracious, open, receptive hand.

30:16 And that any responsible action would mean immediately to begin to crunch in the numbers that clearly reflect a commitment to budgetary, not merely restraint, but budgetary retreat. However, your leaders do not believe that this should be our immediate response. And why is that? Well, first of all, because it would mean we would rob ourselves of the spiritual exercises and challenges which our present situation brings to bear upon us.

30:56 It would rob us of the spiritual exercises and challenges which our present situation brings upon us. Furthermore, it would mean that we are assuming that the bar graph of the past six months is an infallible prophecy of the next three months. And I'm not prepared to allow one of the PCs in the church basement to be turned into a prophet or a prophetess if someone has dubbed it with a female name. I'm not going to allow.

31:33 I'm not going to allow an Apple computer to be the mouth of God. Nor are my fellow elders, nor the dear deacons who serve us so faithfully in this place.

31:47 We regard this response just the opposite of fanaticism and presumption. The first response, this is a response of fatalism and rationalism. It does not allow that there may be significant factors in the whole equation that are going to change the course of our life. That we do not see, and that God can bring to light in a very short time.

The Story of Elisha and the Syrian Army: Not All Reality is on the Bar Graph

32:13 And there are many examples of this in the scriptures. As I was preparing this message, my mind went back to those examples found in 2 Kings. You wonder sometimes what these large historical sections have been put in our Bibles for. Well, they are rich seedbeds of illustrating vital biblical principles instruction in the way of righteousness.

32:40 And in 2 Kings chapter 6, we have a wonderful incident recorded in verse 8 and following. The king of Syria was warring against Israel. And he took counsel with his servants saying, in such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel saying, beware that you do not pass by such a place, for there the Syrians are coming down.

33:05 So every time the Syrian general, would get in his tent with his leading military officers and plot his strategy, God would reveal to Elisha what was going on and Elisha would tell the military strategy to the leaders of Israel. And after a while the Syrians began to catch on that maybe there was a mole in the camp and a traitor, a fifth colonist who was somehow slipping out and slipping into Israel that something was wrong and then they come to the conclusion there's a prophet somewhere in all of this so they decide to surround the city and to capture the man of God, verse 14, therefore sent he thither horses and chariots and a great host and they came by night

33:49 and compassed the city about and when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, what did he see? He saw these realities a host with horses and chariots round about the city. Now he wasn't having a dream, he wasn't hallucinating these things were not the projections of his own fears and apprehensions materializing somehow in the chambers of his brain, no there were real chariots whose chariot wheels he could hear if they ground over stone around the city. There were real soldiers with helmets and spears and horses with flared nostrils and thumping

34:33 feet. This was reality this was the bar graph this was the logistical display of what chance does a prophet with a mantle have against an army with horsemen and spearmen and chariots. But you see the prophet knew there were some things the bar graph couldn't display so what does he do? Well the servant comes to the man of God and says alas my master what shall we do?

35:05 And the prophet simply says don't be afraid, don't be afraid of God. For they that are with us are more than they that are with them. Oh yes you've seen a multitude of soldiers chariots and horses and warmen but there's another reality that is out there my son. And Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray you open his eyes that he may see. He doesn't

35:39 ask God to create anything that isn't there he just asks God to give to his servant eyes to see something that was there all the while that he had not yet seen. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him Elisha prayed to the Lord and said smite this people I pray thee with blindness. And you know some of you the rest of the story it's humorous. If God doesn't have a sense

36:13 of humor he never would inspire this passage. And here the army that came out to capture the prophet is being led blind by the hand of the prophet. You see in the servant of the man of God learn the lesson not all reality can be captured on the bar graph. Not all reality is in the numbers by which the patterns of our giving have been carefully calibrated and tracked over recent months. And there are

36:47 other realities and we would not rob any of you nor ourselves of the privilege of seeing those realities which are only seen in the crisis where it's necessary for God to reveal them. And here I give just a little bit of church history that is Trinity church history for those visiting and those who are new among us. The building in which we sit and the adjacent buildings according to much less sophisticated than back then what 17, 18 years ago when the numbers were crunched in with regard to the amount of our giving, the patterns of our giving what it would cost to build a modest building to house us

37:32 still meeting in rented school houses I shall never forget that elders retreat when similar papers not bar graphs but here they were charts with things hooked together with their high points and low points and I shall never forget seeing on that chart that with each passing day given inflation and what it was doing to building costs and what it was doing to the cost of living in this area and all the rest with each passing day the patterns of our income and the cost of building a building the distance between the two lines was getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger so that according to the calculations of the computer there was no way we could responsibly

38:15 construct anything but there were realities that that computer could not compute and that's the God of Heaven who says call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not so we began to have extra prayer meetings and cry to God and here we sit in a complex of buildings and furnishings that at the time not I don't know what their present worth is totaled somewhere close to one and a half million dollars and the people said where did you get the money I said I don't know we prayed I know you prayed we do practically

38:59 there are factors that cannot be calibrated by the most calculating careful analysis of the things that can be seen with these eyes and dear people that's why we are not in a panic mode that's why in a public forum I'm declaring our present state without shame without embarrassment and seeking to bring the word of God to bear upon it and the course has been before us are not the course of fanaticism presumption nor is it the course of fatalism and rationalism well there's a third possible course of action and that is this

A Balanced Biblical Response: Intensified Prayer

39:42 to seek to respond to our present financial situation I didn't even call it a crisis I said to seek to respond to our present financial situation the situation is what is that's reality to respond to that reality in a balanced biblical manner to seek to respond to our present financial situation in a balanced biblical manner now what will that involve well let me suggest it will involve three things you knew that before I even said it alright number one giving ourselves to intensified personal family

40:26 and corporate prayer regarding this situation giving ourselves to intensified personal family and corporate prayer regarding this situation I refer you to the familiar words of chapter four in Philippians there are two sections in this chapter particularly relevant to our present situation verse six in nothing be anxious in nothing allow your spirit to become turbulent and

41:11 agitated with an anxiety that unstrings the soul and brings imbalance to the judgment in nothing be anxious Paul is obviously aware that in the life of any individual Christian and in the life of the people of God together there will constantly be circumstances and situations which if they had their way would bring us into a state of turbulent anxiety he said in nothing be anxious and what's the divine antidote to this kind of sinful anxiety but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

41:56 let your requests be made known unto God and I am thankful that there is no panic this memo that came from Mr. Davies is just one of many that we received in the course of a year in the open communication between the elders and deacons apprising us of various concerns seeking our counsel there's not a note of panic in this it's simply apprising us of the situation what is and how are we to respond as your leaders we are not to be anxious we are not to go into your fingernail mode as leaders no in nothing be anxious

42:41 but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God in our closets at our family altars in our prayer meetings on Wednesday in our monthly prayer meetings on Saturday let us begin to intensify and focus our prayers upon this present situation and cry to the God of heaven that he would give us wisdom that if it pleased him he would alter it in the next month so that in planning the budgetary commitments of the coming year we can plan wisely and responsibly to the glory of God and to the

43:25 advancement of his kingdom and this has peculiar relevance to the Philippians and I believe to us by the grace of God for it was this church of whom Paul could say notice in verses 15 to 18 of the same chapter you yourselves know you Philippians that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need not that I seek for the gift but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account I have all things and abound I am filled having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you

44:09 in order of a sweet smell the sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God now often verse 19 is just quoted out of context or with no reference to the context but you see in the context verse 19 is spoken to a church that has sought to have an open hand in the cause of the spread of the gospel they had a unique concern for this new gospel foray that Paul was making when he departed from Macedonia and no other church voluntarily entered in and shared that with him but in the soul of that Philippian church was a peculiar grace of open handed large hearted

44:53 identification with the apostle and his missionary endeavors and even when Paul is in prison they have a heart to respond to his needs and Epaphroditus is sent and he says I am now flush I have learned how to be abased and how to abound but when you Philippians have expressed your heart and opened your hand I am in an abounding state and this I know now verse 19 and my God and my God see the connective and my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus give and it should be given unto you good measure

45:38 press down and shall men give unto your bosom he that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly he that sows abundantly shall reap abundantly and as he says in those watershed passages in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 he says as you Corinthians give God is able to make you abound in the grace of giving and the more you sow the more you reap and the more you reap the more you have seed for sowing and bread for eating the old statement God is no man's better is true and dear people I believe that we have biblical grounds to take these texts

46:22 in Philippians and to give ourselves at this time in our closets in our family worship and in our corporate seasons of prayer to crying out to God those of us who have been through those epochs in the life of our church that resulted in the construction of these buildings and other massive financial undertakings we would not trade those seasons of wrestling with God for anything and could it be that God is in his scrutable wisdom says now my children down there are getting just a little bit presumptuous that everything is going to run alright and they can continue to take on additional burdens and responsibilities and commitments and I need to

47:06 get their attention and for one reason or another and perhaps we could trace it down to some of the natural factors God has used the bar graphs show there's been a falling off that's gotten our attention now he gets our attention not to lead us into rationalism and to a course of unbelief nor to lead us into a course of fanaticism and presumption but that we might respond biblically to give ourselves to intensified merciful family and corporate prayer regarding this situation some of us can remember back when we

47:50 faced one of our first major crises and this had to do with getting a piece of land not even constructing a building and we had a week of prayer and it was my privilege to preach through 2 Chronicles 20 and time will not permit us to go through the chapter but I urge you as you personally perhaps pray and as you lead your family praying for this matter to read that chapter at the heart of which is the king who says to the entire nation and in the presence of the nation he says to his God as they face a crisis that could result in their utter annihilation we know not what to do but our eyes are unto

A Balanced Biblical Response: Honest Self-Examination on Giving

48:34 thee and how wonderfully God intervened and magnified his name and met the needs of his people so a balanced biblical response will begin with our giving ourselves to prayer but then secondly a balanced biblical response will find us engaging in honest personal and family self examination concerning our present patterns of giving to the work of God in this place that a biblical response should find us engaging in honest personal and family self examination not the elders examining

49:18 what you're giving not one another examining each other no personal and family self examination concerning our present patterns of giving to the work of God in this place and to help you in that process and discipline of self examination may I give you three questions that I ask you to take into the presence of God with you and to seek to ask them with judgment day honesty in the presence of your God question number one am I being faithful in my principled determination to give God his

50:02 rightful portion of all of my increase am I being faithful in my principled determination to give to God his rightful portion of all of my increase you remember the question asked in Malachi three and verse eight will a man rob God and the people say wherein have we robbed God and God answers in tithes and in offerings you see that portion that God is to receive of the first fruits of our increase Proverbs

50:45 3 9 honor the Lord with thy substance and the first fruits of thine increase though all that we have belongs to God in a very unique way that belongs to God in failure to give it to God is a form of spiritual thievery it is robbing God and I ask you to ask honestly in the presence of God am I am I not someone else am I being faithful in my principled determination to give God his rightful portion of all of my increase or am I guilty of robbing God

51:28 now I'm not going to ask you that question but I'm urging you to ask yourself that question in the solemn presence of God and to ask it of your children are they taking of their allowance and giving God his portion of what they earn by cutting lawns and doing babysitting are you rearing a family that has as part of its emerging consciousness of right and wrong that tenth of all my increase belongs to the Lord my God it's a principled determined settled non-negotiable commitment of heart that I will not be guilty

52:10 of robbing God secondly you ask this question am I really seeking the priorities of the kingdom of God with respect to my discretionary income am I really seeking the priorities of the kingdom of God with my discretionary income and here I ask you to turn to Matthew 6 a passage to which I alluded in the introduction of our study tonight and I'll explain to you kids what I mean priorities and discretionary income here in Matthew chapter 6 the Lord says in verse 19

52:53 lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust consume and thieves break through and steal now what is assumed in that text what is assumed is that when God has been given his rightful portion there is yet discretionary income income that I am free to use in other ways I have something that can be placed in the bank can be invested in real estate or in other commodities I have something that can become a cumulative treasure out of my discretionary income

53:38 it is not income needed for food and drink it is not income to give God his rightful portion on the front end of whatever comes into my hand discretionary income is income that I am at liberty to spend for things other than that which God lawfully demands me to spend it for he lawfully demands that I provide food for my family that I give him his portion that I respond to the needy he lawfully demands that I pay my taxes tribute to whom tribute is due he lawfully demands that I do not incur and sustain unrighteous indebtedness owe no man anything

54:22 but now when those things are cared for and I have discretionary funds what does Jesus say he says don't be committed to laying up treasure on earth don't be committed to the amassing of wealth here on earth but let something else be the focus of your priority with your discretionary income verse 33 seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you and in the midst of that he makes one of the plainest statements about the relationship of the disciple to money and things

55:06 to be found anywhere in the word verse 24 no man can serve two masters he'll hate the one and love the other hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and money is here personified into a God called mammon you cannot serve God and mammon you cannot have a heart fixed upon the priority of amassing discretionary income with a view to this present life and to this earth there is to be a priority of commitment to the work of the kingdom and I would ask each of you as I am asking myself

55:51 am I really seeking the priorities of the kingdom of God with my discretionary income that thing be it an item of clothing be it a car be it an appliance whatever it is that I may be at liberty to purchase with discretionary income can I purchase it if it is not really needed in the course of duty when what would be spent for it could advance the kingdom and be treasure in heaven that will meet me in the last day no more no rust

56:34 no thief can touch it dear people we need to ask ourselves that question I have no right to ask it of you personally and ask you to give an account of what you do to me but surely you must ask it of yourself in the presence of your God and then a third question that I think will help in engaging in honest personal and family self examination concerning our present patterns of giving to the work of God am I being faithful in my principled determination to give God his rightful portion secondly

57:18 am I really seeking the priorities of the kingdom of God in the use of my discretionary income thirdly am I engaging in a level and pattern of giving that reflects any real self denial am I engaging in a level or pattern of giving that reflects any real self denial now why do I ask that question well basically for two reasons the bottom line of discipleship is self denial if any man will come after me the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew

58:01 in Mark and in Luke if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me and in 2 Corinthians 5 15 we are told that one of the very ends for which Christ died was to bring all of those for whom he died into a lifestyle in which they do not live unto self but unto him for we thus judge if one died for all therefore all died and that he died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again he

58:46 died and rose again that having life through his death and resurrection we should live unto him now what is life if we take out of it the elements pertaining to money and things it's one of the major elements of life and therefore if money and things have not felt the radical shift of the power of the cross from self to Christ there's a question if we're really converted and whether we are truly his disciples and how clearly this is illustrated in the word of God the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 speaks of his self denial have we not a right of

59:29 the monetary support of you people at Corinth and in other places but in self denial for the sake of the gospel he says we relinquish this right this right furthermore he starts the whole chapter on benevolence in 2 Corinthians 8 talking about Macedonians who out of their poverty and beyond their power gave freely begging Paul and his companions please take this now granted that was a once for all benevolence offering it wasn't a continuous pattern but you see the principle was there when people already in poverty are squeezing out a gift from their

60:14 poverty and urging the apostle to take it in spite of their evident poverty there's only one thing that causes that and that's the spirit of Christ like self denial as opposed to self pity that often accompanies a state of poverty you remember the widow Jesus said of the others they cast in the old author I says of their superfluity of their abundance this was even beyond what we call discretionary income they were filthy rich they could throw in their gold pieces didn't even have to bother to count how many they threw in compared with how many that were left but when she threw in her two little coins

60:59 Jesus said she cast in all that she had an act of self denial figuring I can't live long on these two little pieces I might as well give them to God and be sustained by his ravens however he will sustain me and the Lord commands and dear people I wonder I wonder if God is not saying to perhaps more than a few of us are you engaging in a level of giving that reflects any real self denial and I'm not going to specify where you can deny yourself I know the areas where I and my wife seek to deny ourselves and my prayer is going to be Lord show us more areas

61:43 where we need more self denial that we might increase our patterns of giving and have the confidence that they are laced with the very purpose for which Christ died that we should no longer live unto self but unto him who died and rose again so in calling all of us to personal and family self examination three questions am I robbing God am I seeking first the kingdom of God in the use of discretionary funds am I denying myself in the patterns of my giving well then there's a third and final and I'll touch on this very briefly element to a balanced response not only is it a call to prayer a call to

A Balanced Biblical Response: Personal Action to Reverse the Trend

62:27 self examination but a call seriously to consider what we may personally do in a responsible way to reverse the present trend it is a call seriously to consider what we may personally do in a responsible way to reverse the present trend whatever you do don't cease to fulfill biblically mandated duties remember Matthew 15 what does Jesus think about the man who takes money that ought to go in fulfillment of the fifth commandment to care for an indigent needy mother and gives it to God the Lord doesn't want it no wherever we have legitimate

63:11 biblically mandated duties we do not take funds allocated to fulfill those duties and increase our giving to God withhold not good when it is in the power of your hand to do it but now the question is do I have a little more power in my hand than I've been willing to recognize for example and I ran this by my fellow elders to ask them if I could state this for instance with their approval if the entire congregation were to say by the grace of God I'm going to increase my giving 10% that is not go from the tithe to 20% but if my tithe is now $50 a week I believe by

63:55 saying no to pizza twice a month and having only once a month we can increase that giving to 55 a week we can increase it 10% someone giving 100 a week says yes we can raise it to 110 by saying no to this here and taking these discretionary funds and putting them here we can really do that without in any way failing to meet our biblically mandated commitments if you were to realize if everyone in this congregation were to do that and a few people were to increase it maybe 15 20% we'd be in the posture not of halt not of retreat but full

64:38 steam ahead and we're asking we're not going to poll you we're not going to bring in financial advisors and we're not going to no we've never done it we have no intention of doing it but we're asking you seriously to consider what you may personally do everybody's job is nobody's job and therefore I'm laying the issue upon your conscience before God as a member of this assembly if your heart is committed to those ministries and responsibilities and stewardships entrusted to us to say oh God what is in the power of my hand to do that perhaps I've not recognized is there withhold not good from them to whom

65:22 it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do it well perhaps there's more power in my hand to do than I've recognized and all I'm asking in a biblically balanced response is that you seriously consider what you may personally do in a responsible way to reverse the present trend and child of God as you follow through on these directives which I trust I've persuaded your conscience are biblical don't forget to go back again and again to those two reference points that Paul gives to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 in the midst of that first

Gospel Motivation for Giving: Christ's Self-Denial

66:05 chapter on the principles of benevolence he says in verse 9 chapter 8 for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though being rich he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich self denial self giving to the utmost and then he concludes the final chapter chapter 9 by saying in that great expression of praise thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift you see he cannot think of the subject of open heartedness and open handedness without thinking of the open heart of God in the giving

66:50 of his son and the son who gave himself and for our sakes became poor let gospel motives percolate afresh through every fiber of your soul in that exercise we dealt with this morning of meditation if your Lord had been calculating and tight fisted you and I would not sit here tonight under the canopy of all the redemptive mercies that are ours in him and for you who are not the people of God I trust you won't leave tonight and say ah there's the church talking about money my friends God doesn't want in one sense he wouldn't want a dime of yours

67:35 his concern is about something far greater than the shekels in your pocket or your bank account sitting at home in your desk and it's the fact that you sit here tonight with an incalculable debt a debt that a whole eternity in hell you can't begin to erase but there's someone who paid the debt for needy sinners like you and when he had fully paid it in the record of heaven he could explain it is accomplished for all who will seek a refuge in my perfect life and in my agonizing death for sinners my unconverted

Call to Action and Final Prayer

68:19 friend what you need above all else is to flee from your sin and flee into Christ and in Christ to find the debt of your sin cancelled and no longer to live to yourself but to him and then the matter of what you do with your paycheck and what you do with your discretionary funds those things will all take their place under the gracious rule of Christ whose yoke is easy and his burden is light well we come around full circle to where we began stand still retreat or go forward your patterns of giving as a church between now and

69:04 December will provide the answer and we as leaders with you will seek to do everything we've urged you to do and then act responsibly in the light of what you do in the coming months stand still retreat or go forward I trust it will be in the purpose of God and by the grace of God that the Lord will so own the things that have been laid before you tonight that it will be manifest that there was more in our hands than we realize and that by a fresh application of self-denial

69:48 and a fresh priority of the kingdom in discretionary funds that there is yet a pool of provision in the providence of God for the work of Christ's kingdom through Trinity Church to go forward in ways it never has before that we will look back on these months as a blessed time of hard dealings with God that will bring forth great honor to him and praise to his beloved son let us pray our father we are so thankful that we have the written scriptures we

70:32 thank you that the scepter of our Lord Jesus is contained in his own holy word and that we need not be embarrassed or ashamed to bring forth those parts of the scepter that address the issues we've addressed tonight thank you for the consciousness of your help and your presence and now we commend to the care and to the further operations of the Holy Spirit all that has been said whatever has been true to your mind as revealed in scripture oh God may it be deeply impressed upon our hearts upon our affections and our wills whatever's had the

71:16 chaff of men's wisdom blow upon it and bring it to naught and we pray that in mercy you would deal with those who have a horrible debt that cannot in any way be liquidated by silver and gold that they may beholding their debt flee to Christ and find the pardon for all of their sins thank you again for this day in your courts and may the blessings of your grace rest upon us throughout the days of the coming week we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen