RG Laterno said, “The question is not how much of my money I give away, but how much of God’s money I keep for myself.” The money came in so quickly that he was actually afraid of getting behind in his giving. It would just come in so rapidly and he just would have kind of a panic about it. And here Laterno, the inventor of giant shovels, the largest shovels ever created, made this statement. He said, “God shovels it in and I shovel it back, but God has a bigger shovel.” Now this is a man who understood exactly what prosperity theology preachers do not understand and do not communicate. He understood the reality that sometimes God does bless us financially and in fact, sometimes God does bless and honor our giving and he gives to us abundantly.

But the question is why? Once we have it, what are we supposed to do with it? And in light of world need, is it possible that God, as Mordecai said to Esther, you’ve been risen up for just such a time as this? Look at world needs and ask yourself, “Have we been called to just such a time as this? Why has God blessed us with incredible affluence at a time in history where given the population of the world, the needs of the world, there are more people in more need than there have ever been in history and God has entrusted to us more wealth than has ever been entrusted to people in history?” Do you think there’s a connection between the two of those? Of course there is, and it’s one that Scripture makes very clear.

Giving Freely

One of my favorite passages on giving in all of Scripture and a passage that I’d encourage you when you think about your key passages to preach on is in 1 Chronicles 29. David talks about giving the treasures of Israel over to the temple. And then he says, “Besides in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my personal treasures” (1 Chronicles 29:3). Now it’s going to get personal. You see it’s one thing to kind of give in general on behalf of others. But now David is saying, “I’m going to make it personal. I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple.” So this is over and above giving. He’s done basic giving. He gave 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of refined silver.

It’s interesting, the word “now” is an operative word here, isn’t it? He is saying, “Now that I, the king of Israel, your leader, have led the way and have shown you the path, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord?” And notice he didn’t say the words, “Who is ready to give?” That’s what he’s calling upon them to do, to give to the Lord, but to give to the Lord is to consecrate yourself to the Lord. So he sees giving as more than just handing over goods. Then it says:

Then the leaders of fathers’ houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work. They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents . . . (1 Chronicles 29:6–7).

It gives all the specifics of gold and silver and bronze and iron and breaks down how all these leaders of families gave and how much they gave, which is an example of sometimes it being appropriate to divulge levels of giving. I’m not at all suggesting it’s always appropriate. It’s not necessarily even normally appropriate, but sometimes it certainly is to talk in terms of specific amounts so that people can be encouraged and motivated. It continues:

And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite (1 Chronicles 29:8).

In many ways, 1 Chronicles 29 parallel, 2 Corinthians 8–9, which we’ll just very quickly skim over at the end of this session because there’s a lot left that we want to look at. But there’s some interesting parallels, including the issue of accountability. Notice the mention of custody. There was a man who they knew to be dependable who was managing the funds. Accountability. This is a very important thing in churches. There are scandals in the areas of sex and money. The two things we’ve said are these great gods, these competitors with the one true God in our society who ultimately are idols that need to be cast down because God alone is God and more things happen in terms of lack of accountability and scandals in the church, in the area of sex and money than probably anything else. The passage continues:

Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly (1 Chronicles 29:9).

By the way, anybody who characterizes Old Testament giving as just tithing, as just mandatory giving, really is missing a whole lot of the Old Testament. There was the mandatory giving, then there were the freewill offerings and sometimes you’ll hear people talk about it, saying, “Well the Old Testament is mandatory giving, the tithe. Now in the New Testament, it’s freewill offering,” like freewill offering is a new thing. It’s not, it’s throughout the Old Testament, you see it here. Here’s a formula for communitywide joy, churchwide joy. People seeing their leaders give and then following their example and giving also. Then it says that David praised the Lord in the presence of the assembly.

Absence of Self-Congratulation

Now notice where the praise goes. Is this a kind of a self-congratulation thing going on here? I’ve been to the ministry building dedications that sometimes make me cringe a little bit and I would say when you dedicate a new church building over to the Lord, be very careful not to make the focus on us like this is self-congratulation tim— “Look at what we managed to pull off.” Who does David give praise to?

Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all (1 Chronicles 29:10–11).

Recently our church dedicated a new facility and I was so pleased with how the leaders, what they did on the first day that we came in, was on a Thursday night. The first thing we did was congregation wide, all got down on our knees, thanked God, praised God, gave credit to him, and then one of our pastors led us through some things that we needed to do in prayer before the Lord and most of them had to do with repentance and confession and there was no spirit of self-congratulation. It was focused on the Lord. Yours, oh Lord is the kingdom. You are exalted as head overall. It’s about you God, not about us. Giving his worship and it inspires worship.

David goes on to say:

Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name (1 Chronicles 29:12–13).

And then he says this:

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you (1 Chronicles 29:14).

Without the lightning, there can be no thunder. He continues:

For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you (1 Chronicles 29:15–17).

There is a recurrence of this word “joy” in relation to giving. It’s another close parallel to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Joy and giving are just intricately, intimately connected. People are inspired by their leaders’ giving, which moves their leaders to worship God. It is a circle of Christ-exalting, grace-centered, passionate joy and it’s a beautiful thing.

The Story of Lewis Tappan

I’m going to tell you a story now and I’m going to take quite a bit of time in this session to tell you the story of a man named Lewis Tappan. And we’re going to, after I tell you a little bit of the story, we’re going to take five minutes of some clips I’ve put together from the movie Amistad and then that involves this man among others. And then I’m going to finish up the story after you see the clip and I hope you’ll understand why I have invested this time in it and how pertinent it is to our subject.

Arthur and Lewis Tappan were brothers. They were business innovators in the silk trade in New York City in the early 1800s. Lewis was raised in a Christian home, a strong Calvinistic home, but after some years of being a Calvinist, he became a Unitarian, which is a pretty big leap. Fortunately, he came back to God and he came back to his senses and returned to the faith of his childhood, this time though he was a changed man. The Tappans were determined to use their company’s profits for Christian causes. Their business funded Bible distribution, tracts and Sunday school materials. They founded the Magdalene Society, which ministered to unwed mothers in New York City.

In 1833, Lewis Tappan read a biography of William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian used of God to bring down the slave trade in England and Tappan resolves to do whatever he could to further the abolitionist cause in America, which was way behind Great Britain. Lewis Tappan founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and from their business headquarters spearheaded fundraising drives for the anti-slavery movement. They sponsored special speakers, they put on revival meetings, and they organized national mailings of abolitionist material mailings that went to the north and the south and to say the least, it was not a very popular thing to do.

Tappan sponsored an evening church service with blacks and whites fully integrated, which was unheard of even in the north. As a result, rioters vandalized the Tappan company store. A mob gathered outside of Lewis Tappan’s home, broke open the door, smashed windows, hurled all the family’s furniture and possessions (bedding and everything) into the streets and burned them all. Tappan’s family barely escaped in time. Tappan founded the journal called “Human Rights,” a newspaper called “The Emancipator,” and a children’s magazine called “Slave’s Friend.” In one 10 month period, the society mailed out over one million anti-slavery pieces. A 50,000 dollar reward was put on Tappan’s head. Effigies of him were hung up all over the place. In 1936, Lewis Tappan one day opened a mailed package to discover a slave’s ear. And if you feel sorry for Tappan, think of the slave.

In another box, he was sent a piece of rope warning him he’d be hung. The New York City Herald actually compared him to Judas and said he deserved to be hung in an editorial. That’s a pretty potent editorial. Tappan responded to all of this by placing in his breast pocket what he called his only weapon, a New Testament. Tappan wrote, “We will persevere come life or death if any fall by the hand of violence, others will continue the blessed work.”

Intervention of the Abolitionists

And then something happened in the providence of God that focused national attention on the horrors of the slave trade, as attention arguably deserves to be focused today on the horrors of the abortion industry. What happened was a floundering ship in the Atlantic was boarded by the US Navy and a group of Mindy Africans had overthrown the crew of the Cuban slave ship La Amistad. Their leader was an abducted slave named Cinque. You’ll see him in the film.

Lewis Tappan came forward to care for the prisoners, to hire legal help. After you see these five minute clips from the movie that captures some of the drama, I’ll finish the story. Tappan is the gentleman you’ll see in the movie in the hat who will be on the right in the opening clip. This is not in the movie, but in the courtroom in real life, Lewis Tappan actually sat on a bench next to three little girls from the slave ship and he befriended Cinque, the leader of the rebel slaves, who you’ll see in the movie looking at the Bible and standing up in the courtroom.Tappan provided the slaves with Bibles and literature. And I want you in this, even in the Steven Spielberg film, to keep your eyes on that red Bible, especially in the last sequence in the courtroom.

It’s a powerful story and most of it is portrayed accurately, but one thing that you do not see in the movie is the courage of Lewis Tappan. He’s a sincere but naive religious man. In fact, he was a follower of Jesus who was widely hated for what he did. By decisions of the court, the Africans here appeared to be set free. But President Van Buren asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the case and Tappan retained former President John Quincy Adams to argue their case before the Supreme Court. And in the movie Amistad, Adams, who’s played by Anthony Hopkins, wins the case and you don’t get the feeling that Lewis Tappan has much of a role here. In real life John Quincy Adams wrote to Lewis Tappan: “The captives are free, but thanks, thanks in the name of humanity and justice to you.” Tappan arranged for the Mindy Africans to return to their homeland first because that was just and second so that they could spread the gospel of Jesus to their fellow countrymen because a number of them had come to faith in Christ.

Blessed to Be a Blessing

Now what is really remarkable is that none of this was what Lewis Tappan did for a living. He had a day job. In his day job, he established the nation’s first credit rating agency, the Wall Street and Merchant Exchange, which today goes by the name of Dun and Bradstreet. Tappan put business profits into the Amistad committee to spread anti-slavery information to other countries. He was a leader in the Underground Railroad. He helped slaves escape to freedom. Because of the fugitive slave law. He could have gone to prison for years for that as others did.

When the Civil War ended, there was emancipation and if anyone deserved to retire, you would think it would be Tappan. So what did he do? Well, he changed the name of the Amistad Committee to the American Missionary Association, which spearheaded missions in West Africa, East Asia, and the West Indies. It also founded colleges for the southern freed people, including Fisk University in Nashville, Berea College in Kentucky, and Howard University in Washington DC, all paid for basically by the wealth of Lewis Tappan and those that he recruited to give to his cause.

Now there are a few surviving letters written by the freed Amistad slaves to Tappan. This one is from Cinque, the African leader you saw in the movie who said, “Give us free,” and keep in mind that this was written in English, which would’ve been a third language for a Mindy African. So don’t let the simple wording mislead you into thinking of him or his people as simple. If this was us writing in our third language, which most of us don’t even have, we would not say it as well:

Dear Sir, Cinque and Mindy people pray for Mr. Tappan all time. Cinque love Mr. Tappan very much and all Mindy people love Mr. Tappan very much. I no forget Mr. Tappan forever and ever. And I no forget God because God helped Mr. Tappan and Mindy people. Your friend, Cinque.

And then there was a letter to Lewis Tappan from the slave Kenna written on the ship while returning to Africa and then sent from Africa. Once he arrived he said to Lewis Tappan:

God is very great, very good, and very kind. We have been on great water. No danger fell upon us. Oh no, we never forget glorious God for these great blessings, how joyful we shall be. I never forget you. May God be blessed. Our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ has done wondrous works. Oh dear Mr. Tappan, how I feel for this wondrous work. I cannot write so plain because the ship rolls. Pray. Jesus will hear you. And if I never see you in this world, we will meet in heaven. Your true friend, Kenna.

Examples for Our Day

Now Lewis Tappan was a layman. RG Laterno was a layman. Stanley Tam was a layman. I tell their stories not simply because they were rich. At the beginning at least two of the three were not rich. But I tell the stories to give us a vision for what so many of our people are and could be if they were given a vision of what they could do with the abundance God has entrusted to them and may entrust to them in the future. And if they’re faithful with a little, he will possibly entrust them with more — certainly will be in the kingdom and even here and now and the words of Jesus. The measure with which you give will have overflowing abundance that comes back to you, not for the purpose of luxury and ease, but for the purpose of strategic and compassionate investment in the kingdom of God.

Lewis Tappan did not go off into the woods to live a simple life. He didn’t go to seminary. He worked hard to establish a business and used the money generated from it to make a difference. So these three men — Lewis Tappan, Stanley Tam, RG Laterno, and their families — think in terms of who in your congregation is like them or could become like them. You see, the reason we need to know stories like this is because it gives us hope that mammon does not have to control our lives. We do not need to surrender to it. There are a lot of defeated people in this area that go, “All right, I’m materialistic, I admit it. But it’s just part of our culture and we just can’t break out of it.” That’s the reality. This is why we need these stories. This is why we need to know who these people are and this is why we need to tell our stories carefully, always giving glory to God in the body of Christ.

But do you know what? For people who think that you should never tell a giving story because it could make someone proud and taking that passage out of context in Matthew 6 and not realizing all those other passages we look at that surrounded and are throughout Scripture, we have to remind ourselves is when a person tells a story of how God’s blessed their marriage, or tells a story of what they’ve learned as a parent, or what they’ve learned about prayer and Bible study, that they could be proud about that too, but hopefully by the grace of God can communicate those things without pride and self-congratulation. You can be proud about anything, folks. If you and I could never get in a pulpit and say anything unless we were certain that we couldn’t attach any pride to it would be a very short service on Sunday. We are vulnerable people who are sinful in and of ourselves and can take pride in any number of things. But we still have to be willing to bow our knees before the Lord and say, “God, humble me, but let me tell my story that you may be glorified.”

Aren’t you glad you know the stories of RG Laterno, Stanley Tam, Lewis Tappan, John Wesley, and George Müller, who never told anybody what he needed, but his story has been told. And it’s really true, isn’t it? You may think nobody knows this story, but other people do know this story. But the great thing is when they know the story, you can actually take great encouragement in it. RG Laterno, among others, was a great example to me forming my views and pushing me to extend my level of giving. I’m so glad I knew his story. And we need to know those stories, not just the Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Jim Elliot, and Nate Saint type stories, as wonderful as those are. Some of our people certainly should be going to the mission field, of course. But most of our people are going to be the senders, the supporters, the prayers, and by all means get them on short-term mission trips. By the way, that’s one of the things I would really recommend. Pick out some businessmen in your church and take them on short-term mission trips.

Received into Eternal Dwellings

If you need somebody to guide you, contact George Verwer, Doug Nichols, or any number of missions leaders who will be able to say, “Okay, there’s some people you could go with,” and you could take some businessmen from your church and they could have a ministry and they could get a picture of this. How many of you have been overseas on short-term missions trips? I would say probably most of you looked like your hands went up. That’s wonderful. And these can be life-changing. Think in terms of praying. Sit down with that church directory and turn those pages and ask God to draw your attention to some men and women, some young people, and youth pastors that are here. There’s a number of you from junior high, high school, and college, young people who could go with us on a mission trip and we could learn together. And these are people who can be shaped and have a vision for the world.

Jesus said, “Use unrighteous mammon to win friends for yourself who will welcome you into their eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). Tappan, Laterno and Tam, I think in eternity will be experiencing (and perhaps are already now) what it is to be welcomed into the eternal dwelling places of brothers and sisters in Christ whose lives have been profoundly affected. I’m sure they’ve already met all kinds of people. There have been great reunions with Lewis Tappan and Cinque and Kenna and some of these others and the “thank yous” that don’t just go one way. This is not that we are just benevolent benefactors and the world is in debt to us. We receive great joy and pleasure in the example of suffering and needy people who God has put there, not just so that they could get help from us, but so that we could get help from them.

In researching my book Safely Home, much of which is set in China studying the persecuted church in China, my heart was moved over and over again. I was moved to tears so many times as I would read these stories from “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine. I recommend you get that magazine. You may not enjoy it, but your heart will be touched in deep ways just to know what’s going on in this world today. We can benefit so much from understanding that and our young people can. We need to be inspired to raise the bar. We and our people need a vision for CT Studd’s words: “Only one life will soon be passed; only what’s done for Christ will last.” And consider Jim Elliott’s words: “He’s no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And John Wesley said, “I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”

Let’s teach our people it’s good to work for a living. It’s good to make money for the glory of God and spend it and give it for the glory of God. It is good to work enough to make more money than you need because God will make you rich in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion. So who are the Lewis Tappans in your church and the Stanley Tams and the RG Laternos and all the others? And what are you doing to find and mentor them and what are you doing to pour yourself into people young and old who could one day be profiled in this kind of a DVD where, if the Lord doesn’t return soon, other Christians will gather and hear their stories and be inspired by them, and where the descendants of John Piper will be given, giving a biographical sketch of them.

Isn’t that a great concept that we are part of a baton that has been passed to us? There is a history that we come out of so often, our modern arrogance, we just think we woke up one day on this planet and there it was and nobody went before us. We have been entrusted with a heritage. Hebrews 11 is still being written today in terms of the stories of faithful people. Will you and I be among them? Whether we’re prominent or not is not the important thing. The important thing is that we are people who believe that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Some Areas of Concern

Now I want to share some things that I would kind of call miscellaneous areas of concern and even caution and things to think about for pastors. I’m not going to develop most of them very much, but I’m just going to kind of throw some things out to you and then we’ll do some things to weave it together here in a little bit.

Beware of the distractions of money and possessions. I’ll just use one example and that’s building a house. Before you go into a building project to build a house — and we’re not talking about whether it’s sinful to build a house because of course there’s nothing inherently sinful about it — the question is, “Do I really need this? And is there not enough to do with my personal time with God, my family, my ministry that I need to spend my days dealing with subcontractors who rarely show up and don’t ever do what I want?” These are the kinds of things where I think we as pastors have to say, “All right, there’s nothing wrong at all with doing this, but can I really afford this?” I have several friends who are pastors who basically for a couple of years of their lives, their family life and their ministry life, have suffered because of how much time and energy and anxiety and frustration went into building a house. I just think that that’s one of many examples that could be used. But let’s just weigh the cost of things materially.

See, the thing with material things is that again, they have mass and mass has gravity and gravity just tends to hold us around it. Beware of hiring professional fundraisers for church projects. Ask yourself, what message does this send to your people? In Money, Possessions, and Eternity in chapter 15, I talk about that. And as most of you know, that’s definitely the going thing. I just think we really need to take a very, very careful look at that.

The Danger of Catering to the Rich

Beware of catering to the rich. James calls it “favoritism” and “evil.” Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 we never use flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed. That’s an interesting phrase, “a mask to cover up greed.” We need to measure our motives. Why are we going to dinner with this person? If he were poor instead of rich, would we be spending as much time with him? Jesus told us to put on a dinner for those who are too poor to pay us back so that we’ll be rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous.

We need to dialogue and pray with the more wealthy people and we also need to tell them the truth. And if they don’t like the truth, so be it. But that doesn’t mean we go out of our way to offend people. We do not have to go out of our way to offend people. God does a magnificent job of that for us. He’s given us his word. And if we just communicate it accurately, many people, countless people will be offended. So you and I do not have to come up with new ways that we’ve invented ourselves to offend people. Just let God offend them. The Holy Spirit has a ministry of offense. That’d be a good book title: The Ministry of Offense. Because he does it right and all we can do is be faithful to it. So I don’t mean go out of your way to insult rich people. That’s not the point.

The point is just teach the word of God and don’t allow yourself to go there. Have you ever had this happen? You’re speaking, I’ve had it happen, and you’re saying something and you look down and you see so-and-so and you go, “Oh boy.” Because I know what happened in that family and the very problem that I’m talking about addresses them. If I’m speaking about abortion and I know who’s had abortions, sometimes it breaks your heart. Part of you goes, “Oh, I better not talk about it because they’ve been through it.” Or you’re talking about adultery and there are people who have committed it, but the whole point in talking about it is to prevent other people from experiencing the devastation that these people have experienced. And we need to tell the truth about material things.

The Danger of Monetary Expediency

Don’t put people on your boards because they’re successful at making money. I know a church leader who said, “I have poured a lot of money into this church and we’re going to get the pastor I want.” Now he was just a little more forthright than most people. I think there’s a lot of people who think that way. They just have enough sense not to actually say it. Now that man, by the way, was not giving. He never gave a dime to that church. He was purchasing power and he was purchasing control. That’s not giving. Just because you write out a check and put it in an offering doesn’t mean that it’s giving. And a person like that should not be rewarded. He can be a cancer in the body of Christ.

I would say get it out on the table with rich people. Tell him, “I want to be your pastor and that means serving you best by telling you the truth. And I’m determined to treat you like everybody else. Jesus said it would be hard for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom. I do not wish to be your beneficiary. I’m not looking to stay at your chalet in the mountains or your condo in Maui. I’m not going to position myself to be that charming, needy pastor who casually mentions that it’s really been a number of years since our family has had a nice vacation.

Have you ever been tempted to do that? I mean, we can all be tempted to do that. The temptation is one thing but the giving into it is another because we twist. We change into something that we don’t want to be, do we? So we tell them, “James 2 says that I shouldn’t treat you differently than anybody else and I intend to obey that command. And I just thought it’d be great for you to know that and we’ll have this understanding between us.” And normally they’ll probably respect and appreciate you for that. And if they don’t, well then so be it.

The Danger of Silence

Speak up as pastors when parachurch groups practice unethical fundraising. I am convinced that the voice of pastors is desperately needed to correct many problems today in the parachurch. I’ll throw one at you. I mentioned this in Money, Possessions, the Eternity. Watch out for celebrity endorsements of charities. Here’s an example. A popular women’s conference charges a lot for admission and invites women to sponsor a child with a well-known evangelical mission, the announcement doesn’t mention the fact that the first 55 dollars given does not go to the children, but it goes to the group that’s putting on the conference. I spoke with the president of this well-known mission group and I told him I thought that was wrong. He said he agreed. Last I knew it was still being done. Now as a pastor, women from your church are going to this conference. And if you spoke up, maybe they would listen.

We had a situation in our church where a well-known mission group approached a group of young men who have a singing group and they’re quite talented and on the rise. So they came to them and they said, “Would you be willing to take offerings on behalf of our mission?” Well, that’s fine. If you want to say to the group of young men, “Would you be willing to draw attention to the cause of Christ through missions and people who have medical needs and all that kind of stuff that our group does?” Well, sure, that’s a great thing to ask them. But then here was the deal. They said you take offerings at your concerts, you get to keep 20 percent of them. Now, normally when this is done, no announcement is made. Nobody is told, “Just so you know so much of this cut goes to the musician or to the people putting on the conference.” I don’t know about you, but I think that is just wrong. And I think that pastors are in a unique position to express their moral concerns and occasionally moral outrage at some of the things that are happening in the evangelical community.

Why? Because these people are entrusted to your care. And the people who are supporting the parachurch and the parachurch organizations are getting money from people who belong to local churches. There may be some who don’t, but they certainly should. I think we should take it personally in the sense of intervening. I’ve made phone calls and pastors at our church have made phone calls to some of these groups and we say, “What are you doing?” We recently made a call. There’s a wonderful organization that we support, and recently they’ve been sending out these gimmicky fundraising deals. These things that come where it looks like it’s coming from the IRS. It’s really some important thing and you get tricked into opening it, that sort of deal. What? Deception for fundraising purposes in the body of Christ? It’s wrong.

There are issues such as ghost writing. Don’t let your name be put on something that you didn’t write. I mean, when people read that and it says, “This is written by so-and-so,” they actually believe it. But a whole lot of things are not written by the people whose name ends up going on it. And it’s not just in publishing. There are seminary presidents and Christian liberal arts college presidents who have an assistant who writes their article every month or quarter or whenever this comes out. But there’s no mention of the person who actually wrote it. It’s the president’s name that goes with it. And he didn’t write the article. In some cases he didn’t read the article. But he didn’t write it.

Now, it’s very interesting that a student at that same university, if he puts his name on a paper written by another student, gets expelled. But the president can do it. I’m not thinking specifics or communicating to you specifics. I’m deliberately not doing that. But this is happening and I think most of you are aware of it. And it’s happening usually for financial reasons. We have this popular celebrity type person. His name goes on the book and that’s what will sell the book. So it’s about money and somebody that’s a good writer, but nobody’s ever heard of this person and doesn’t care about this person, can write that book. So it seems like kind of a neat little partnership. Am I wrong or is that unethical?

The High Calling of a Pastor

And what about the president? What about the pastor? By all means, if you have an assistant or somebody who types something up and you look it over and you have a lot of input to it can go out under both your names or whatever it is. But the point is, let’s not take credit, especially for financial motives or motives of pride or anything else, for what we didn’t do. If passers don’t take the role of wall watchers like Ezekiel, who’s going to do it? Who do we want to be the moral guardians of the Christian community, the television evangelists? The Christian gift store operators? The t-shirt makers? The contemporary Christian musicians? Who are we looking to to provide leadership in this area? It seems to me that God’s plan is about the church, and the pastors are God’s appointed leaders of the church.

I know that’s a lot to lay on your shoulders, but it’s a high calling man. It is a high calling. I look back at those 14 years I was a pastor and in many ways it was tougher than what I’ve been doing the last 14 years. I’ve worked hard, but I know the weight that can come on your shoulders. I know that when somebody says, “Take more responsibility,” it can cause you to sigh sometimes. But be excited about the fact that God has called you to an incredibly strategic position to influence your people in these financial matters and investing in eternity.

The Danger of Wrong Motives

Beware of appealing to wrong motives such as, “We’re going to build this thing and if you give this much money, your name goes on a brick.” In Matthew 6 it says, “Don’t do your giving to be seen by men.” What other possible motive could there be for having the name on the brick than to be seen by men? That means we are specifically appealing to people to lose their reward. Because what Jesus said was, “If you’re looking toward having your name on a brick so people can see it, I hope you like bricks because that’s your reward. That’s it.” Now why would we do that?

Well, we do it because it will raise more money. That’s not a good reason for doing it. If God wants to provide the money, he’ll provide it with the right motives in the right way, with the right instruction and the right kind of prayer. Sometimes many of these cheap little shortcut things are sort of a substitute for things like fasting and prayer. Because oh boy, if we get this fundraising group in here and do this and we do that and we do the names of the bricks and the next thing we’ve got ourselves something. Well what’s going to be happening in that? What’s happening in people’s hearts?

Don’t let yourself be used for commercial interests. And again, please don’t think I’m judging if this falls into something you’ve experienced. I’m just suggesting let’s think very carefully when some group approaches us and says that if you get eight or 10 couples from your church to sign up for a paid trip to Israel, you get to go for free. So now what are we doing? We’re representing the interests of this company to come to our people.

I received an invitation this last week to speak on a Caribbean cruise with all the benefits going to a strategic ministry. It’s a good ministry. And then they said, “We’ll pay you $5,000.” Okay, so it’s a free cruise and my wife and I will be paid $5,000, and I prayed about it for 30 seconds before I realized that the Lord was not going to allow me to even give serious consideration to this. It’s not because it is inherently wrong, but because I would be used to giving credibility to something that could possibly influence people to use money for something that might be — I’m not even saying would be — more strategically used for the kingdom of God than going on this particular cruise. This was not saying nobody should ever go on a cruise.

Please, if someday I go on a cruise, I don’t want to have to send out 1,200 emails explaining and justifying it. My point is that I have to look at it and say “I can’t let other people set my agenda.” John Piper and I were talking about this. Let’s set our own agendas. Let’s not just rely upon the things that come to us that people ask us to do and expect us to do, but say, “Okay, I can consider this. I can weigh this, but God’s calling on my life is to be whatever it is.” And part of that, if it’s being a pastor, is to say the choices I make send a message. Don’t get me wrong. I know there’s lots of good radio ministries that are sponsoring cruises now and everything else, but you just have to ask yourself, “What statement am I going to make to my people when I do these things?” Maybe there is a higher responsibility.

By all means, God gives some of us opportunities. We have somebody that has a cabin that lets us stay there for a week in this really nice place. We are grateful to take it. I don’t mean you never receive anything. Don’t take this out of context, but I hope you hear the heart of what I’m saying.

The Danger of Marketing the Pastorate

Beware of people who like to do their giving to the pastor instead of the church. Beware of the marketing of pastors, competing pulpit committees. Beware of the lure of outside income. Sometimes God calls people to write books and magazine articles and speak and get honorariums, all of that kind of stuff. Just be careful with it.

There are some of you men who are in a church that can’t afford you to be full-time or whatever it is. So you need to work another job, a second job, whatever. God bless you brother. So this is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about when God has provided enough for us through the salary of the church and it’s really okay. It really is enough. But then we get this invitation and they start throwing out figures and then we’re asked to do this and this. We can be drawn away from our families. We can be drawn away from our ministries. And I think we just need to pray and seek counsel and be careful with these things.

When I was a pastor, I was doing writing, so I’m very sensitive to this thing. We just need to work it over with our boards and say, “What are your expectations of me? What’s going on here? I don’t want a situation where I’m using church equipment and church employees to get something that’s going to bring royalties to me and is going to keep me away from things you’re expecting me to do. Let’s just get it all out, talk it out, be above board, and let’s work this thing through and figure it out.”

I think, by the way, one of the cleanest things we can do is determine if God is providing sufficiently for us through our salaries that any outside speaking or writing or anything else that we would do ever, that the royalties would go to the kingdom of God, that the honorary would go to help the poor. And all of a sudden it brings clarity to my decision as to whether God’s leading me to do this thing or not. And it’s good. It’s a healthy thing.

Recommendations for Money

Don’t use fundraising gimmicks. Preach on giving, but when you preach, ask for special prayer. When I spoke on giving at my church, we recruited people for the prayer room while I was preaching because mammon is a stronghold and I just needed a large group of people praying for me in each one of our services.

Here’s a recommendation that I have: Preach on giving when no building fund offering is imminent. Choose another time. In fact, how about this. If you do say a three week series on giving, preach before a special missions fund offering is taken that’s going to go outside the church. See, just as individuals can spend too much on themselves and forget that they’re the Fed-Ex guy, churches can forget that we corporately are the Fed-Ex guy. So we can think God brought it all in, so we’re going to keep it. Well, maybe God brought it in so that we could do exactly what Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 8, which by the way was one church giving to help people in another church who were in need. If our money stays inside of ourselves we will be sucked inside of ourselves. But if our money goes out to causes greater than us, as great as the kingdom of God is great, then our hearts follow our treasures and we gain a vision for what God wants.

The Danger of Untouchable Resources

There’s a few more things that I’ll say. One beware of untouchable resources like retirement. I met with a man who inherited a million dollars and he wanted to invest it in God’s kingdom and a Christian financial counselor told him, “Well, if you feel like you must, give away the interest earnings but never give away the principal, the principal is always untouchable.” And this man repeated this to me. The principal is always untouchable. And I told him, “If you are a follower of Christ, do not use that word untouchable.” It belongs to God, not to you. Therefore you must lay it on the table. Who are we to declare “off limits” anything that’s been provided by God and is owned by God? The principle is just as much God’s as the interests.

I wrote a book that includes 40 questions to ask God about your giving. One of them is this: “If I make a list, God, of all the assets you’ve entrusted to me and ask what you want me to give away, is there anything I’m leaving off the list? Is there anything I’m treating as if it were untouchable? As if it were mine, not yours? Do my retirement funds belong to you also?”

I was speaking at a donors conference for a mission group that works in the third world, and when they read that list of 40 questions, they said, “You know what? You really need to cut out that question that brings up retirement funds because our donors are not going to be comfortable with that and we’re not comfortable with that.” Now, I’m not saying that we should give up our retirement. I still have a retirement program. We have given some of it away. You may have to take penalties and interests. There’s all kinds of things going on there. But I just think that this retirement program thing has just gone way out of balance.

One of the things that’s happened in the process is this idea of spending the final years of our lives, whether it’s 20 years or whatever it is after retirement, walking on beaches and collecting seashells and playing golf. There’s nothing wrong with beaches and seashells and golf. It’s just that God wants us to serve him till the day we die.

Not a Mite Would I Withhold

Now, we may be in a position where we are not receiving pay for serving God, and we may be able to fund some missions opportunities through some savings of retirement or whatever. I’m leaving that up between you and God. I’m not making value judgments in that area, but I’m telling you this. One thing I can tell you for absolute sure, retirement has to be on the table with everything else. It has to be. We are the most wealthy nation in human history and many people have not even had the luxury of thinking about retirement. What is retirement? What is saving up for retirement so that every T is crossed and every I is dotted for 30 years in the future? I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying let’s look at it carefully and let’s put it on the table and ask. There’s some people who don’t have retirement, not because they’re generous and investing in God’s kingdom, it’s just because they’re lazy.

But then on the other hand, I know some missionaries who came to me and they said, “You know what we decided we love what we’re doing and we believe in what we’re doing. We’re going to cash out our retirement and we’re going to give it to the mission work that we’re doing. We just believe in it. We believe that God’s going to take care of us.” And a lot of people would say that’s really unrealistic and that’s really stupid.

Well, if you think that’s unrealistic and stupid, you must think the poor widow who put the coins in the off offering was clinically insane, right? I mean, don’t these people, even after they give away their retirement, still have lots of stuff and the widow is commended when she gives away everything she had? And then we go, “Well, that would really be stupid because that’s untouchable. You can’t deal with retirement.” Well so much for that. A.W. Tozer said:

The man of pseudo faith will fight for his verbal creed while refusing flatly to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways of escape. So he will have a way out of it if the roof caves in. What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do on the last day.

That’s why I love Tozer so much. His stuff is rich with things like that. Spurgeon said:

Can you trust him for your soul’s redemption and not rely upon him for a few lesser mercies? Is not God enough for thy need? Or is his all-sufficiency too narrow for thy wants? Is his heart faint? Is his arm weary? If so, seek another God. But if he be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all-wise, why gattest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence? Why does thou rake the earth to find another foundation when this is strong enough to bear all the weight which thou can’t ever build thereon?”

Can you say amen to Charles Spurgeon? Amen.

The Danger of Inheritance

We have a lot of people today who need a basic paradigm shift, and one of the final areas that I’ll mention is the area of inheritance. Teach people about inheritance and its dangers. Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” That’s a very good statement, but understand that in Old Testament times passing on ownership of the land to children and grandchildren was critical. Without it, they could not do the farming or raise the livestock. Many of them were too poor to buy land. With no inheritance they’d end up enslaved or unable to care for their parents and their grandparents who normally lived with them to the end of their lives.

Today, inheritance in America is something radically different. Inheritances are usually windfalls coming to people who do not live with their parents, who have not pursued their parents’ business, who are part of their own careers, who don’t need their parents’ land. They are financially independent and they already have more than they need. So when they inherit a farmhouse or real estate, whether it’s in their 30s or their 40s or their 50s or whenever it is, it’s like lottery winnings. It’s unearned income that simply raises their standard of living, often dramatically, and tempts them to do all kinds of things that they shouldn’t be doing. And I have asked people before, farmers who’s going to leave his estate to people who are doctors and lawyers and I say, “What is that going to do to your children?”

I mean, if they needed it, sure, of course. What about special needs children? You got this, you got that. You got all these reasons. Help your family, of course. But if they don’t need it and you know that people, all of the world do need it, invest it in the kingdom of God. Give it away while you’re alive. But what’s left when you’re dead? Give most of that in the will to God’s kingdom. Now, that’s not giving in the ultimate sense. You really don’t have any choice but to give it away when you die. I mean you can’t take it with you. But by all means, leave it wisely. And the best thing we can do for our children really is to leave them in, not in inheritance, but a heritage.

Take Responsibility for the Money God Gave You

Let me just ask you this. Suppose you had a money manager and he was in charge of all of your financial assets, all right? Now suppose you heard today that your money manager died. Well, what would you think if you found out that when your money manager died, he left all of your money to his children? You’d say, “You can’t do that. It’s not your money.” Well, who owns what we call our money? God. Who has God entrusted that money to? Us. Who needs to determine what to do in terms of investing that money as we see fit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Us.

Isn’t God able to entrust to the next generation whatever he wants the next generation to have? Let’s help whatever is reasonable to help. We want to be very generous with our kids and grandchildren, but not in ways that are windfalls, that tempt them to live in a way that may not be the best for them and their family. And the best case scenario might be, well, okay, we could leave it to them. And then I asked one family this, “Well, why are you leaving all this money to the doctors and lawyers and all that? What do you hope they’ll do with it?” And the response was, “They really don’t need it. We hope they’ll give it away.” I said, “Well, why don’t you? If that would be the best thing?” That’s another one of those untouchables that I’ve just touched, and we will try to wrap it up here.

Distribution of Resources

Develop a church network of possession sharing, a master list of available possessions. Have some of you done that in your churches? Here are things that you don’t need to go out and buy. Somebody needs something once and in our society, we just go out and buy it. I need to get this instead of borrowing it from a neighbor or other people in the church. And then we could have a deal where, “Okay, anytime you borrow this, instead of buy, take the money that you would’ve spent and give it away. Give it to the poor or give it to a special offering of the church.”

Consider reverse offerings or distributions, where the church starts by putting the money in it and it’s passed around. Each person takes an envelope and that envelope has maybe five or ten dollars inside of it. How many of you have done this in your churches? Okay. Some of you have. Now granted, you don’t want people to get in the habit of that. You want to make clear that this is for this Sunday, not for every Sunday that you take out of the offering, but the point is that you take this and then you go out and steward it and you do something wise with it, hopefully for the kingdom of God.

Resources for Cheerful Giving

What we want to do is to be sure that we are representing our Lord accurately, faithfully, carefully. And one of the things that I want to do is to give you three websites that I think could be of help to you. First, our ministry website is epm.org that’s for Eternal Perspective Ministries. We don’t want you to come and give us money. We want you to come and take anything that you want from the website, use it however you wish. There are many things related to finances and biblical studies on giving. Freely we have received, freely we give. It is a privilege to make an investment in your church, and we’re delighted if you use the stuff. Use it as you wish. If you have to edit it, just don’t change the theology and without sending an email requesting the changes you would make. But if you use it as is, you can use it as you wish with your people.

And then another one is generousgiving.org. There are some great resources at that site. And then there is a site called Crown Financial Ministries, which is at crown.org. They have a special section. You can look at the menu that relates to the local church and the resources they offer. And I would really encourage you to consider getting into some Bible studies in your church from Crown Ministries. There’s a treasure principle Bible study that a lot of churches are using now. Money, Possessions, and Eternity also has discussion questions in the back. They can be used in Bible studies.

In conclusion, in eternity, men, we are going to worship God with people of every tribe and nation and language. And we’re going to say thanks to them. And they’re going to say thanks to us for acts of faithfulness done for Christ while we still lived on this earth. And we’re going to tell each other’s stories. And the Lord is going to be at the center of our attention. And he is going to get the credit and he is going to get the worship and he will be delighted. I think no laugh will be louder than the laugh of Jesus Christ as we joyfully embrace each other and we rejoice at what God did in us and through us while we who were but dust lived down on this earth. We’re going to live with him forever in a new heavens and a new earth and reign the universe with him, to his glory, to his praise. And we’re going to sing his praises together with those people from every tribe and nation and language. And it is going to be great.

And you know what? Five minutes after we die, we’re going to know exactly how we should have lived, but it’s going to be too late to go back and make all those changes. So now let’s look at his word so that we don’t have to wait until we die to know how we should have lived. And then let’s call upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live that way now. There is no greater joy, there is no greater adventure, and there is no greater example to your people. I just commend you for the work you are doing and encourage you to bring these things to God in prayer. Get with a group of leaders in your church. Do whatever it is that you need to do to sustain, not just the things that I’ve talked about, but the things in the other sessions of the session tomorrow. Walk away with a sense that God may do something great and unprecedented in your life and in your church to the glory of Christ.