Jason McKnight

And, the 4th article of 5:

The Treasure Principle (July 2010)

We are on the journey – the 4^th part of the journey into God’s finances in our lives. We began this journey three months ago in April’s issue of Grace Matters. I encouraged us to think of our whole financial lives as falling into one of 4 categories: Debt, Savings, Giving and “Lifestyle”. In May we discussed Debt and last month we considered Savings. Today we get to my favorite: giving. Next month we’ll round out the series with some lifestyle/monthly budget tips and helps.

You might remember that I have gathered insights from almost a dozen people in the church, so you can rest assured that the encouragement and challenge that follows is not mine only. From this wealth of knowledge, let me offer 3 insights into Scripture, 4 instructions for us to run with, and 1 question.

3 Insights into God’s Heart for Giving

Do you remember Randy Alcorn’s little book The Treasure Principle? It is the best short book on the nuts and bolts of giving. He frames the title around Jesus’ awesome words in Matthew 19. Jesus is talking to and about the “Rich Young Ruler” who wants to follow Jesus in every way but with his money. He wants to be a disciple, yet withhold part of his followership, “um, no, Lord, you can’t look in my checkbook.”

The amazing thing is that Jesus sets up a business proposition for him. Jesus addresses the very heart that is looking for a good deal, a great stock tip, an awesome investment opportunity: “Sell all you have… and you will have treasures in heaven.” (Mt 19:21)  Jesus uses investment language for this shrewd investor. But the guy doesn’t bite. He wants a shorter term horizon, a nearer pay-off. Eternity, heaven, the next age… that’s all a little too far for him.

Yet Jesus follows it up with this awesome guarantee of the rate of return, the Return on Investment: “anyone who has left [everything] for my sake will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life.” That’s a 10,000% rate of return. That’s not bad. Move over American Funds… Jesus guarantees that living life the way he wants us to live it IS WORTH IT, even in our regular way of thinking—risk and reward.

A second verse in Matthew helps us as we think about carving out a growing proportion of our income for the work of the Lord: Mt 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I always thought it was the other way around: you’ll put your treasure where your heart already is. But, Jesus says that our heart actually follows our wallet. Wherever we invest our money, our heart is going to follow. Framed like this, we need to be super careful about the spending/investment decisions we make. Every dollar means a heart-string to something! Axiomatic among fundraisers is that if you can get someone giving toward something, they will soon be very interested in it. It’s exactly what Jesus said. So, take-away: how does your investment (ie., giving, tithing, offerings, gifts) in the Kingdom reflect your heart? Would you be embarrassed for your friends, family, church or Lord to see into your giving records? Where you put your treasure is what you truly value. May it be Kingdom work (and that means not only at Grace, but anywhere the Gospel is being preached and lived).

The third insight is a gift of encouragement. God’s heart is so for us, that he tells us for every step we take in obedience to him, he takes 2 (or 10) toward us in blessing! Malachi 3:10 says, “bring in the whole tithe into the [Temple],and see if I do not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Now, this is not a “give to get” promise, nor the prosperity gospel. But frankly, I’d love for God to have my back to bless me in ANY way he sees fit. If I give him $5,000 or $105,000 this year, and he blesses me—not by giving that money back in a different way—but by giving me contentment with that much less, that’s a miraculous blessing (you should see how sometimes I can be very greedy!). The blessings come in a million ways. God is so much more creative than “sow a seed” preachers who say, “give $1000 right now, and you’ll get $10,000 in a week”. How boring. God blesses in a multitude of ways. The point is summed up well by this non-biblical axiom, God is no man’s debtor. Amen.

4 Instructions for My Heart for Giving

1.         Give first and start now… or you won’t do it… This is just that simple. If you say, “I’ll start giving on my next paycheck” or “I’ll start when we finish paying this debt”, then there will always be something else to pay off, or a next paycheck to start on. The best way to grow into the grace of giving is to start now. Don’t wait for an opportune time. You’ll miss out on a life of blessed giving. And, each paycheck, make your tithes, offerings and gifts the very first item of business you do in the family budget. don’t see what you have at the end for the Lord. Start with the Lord, and he’ll stretch the rest. No doubt. (Now, this doesn’t mean if you give first you won’t have to exercise any self-restraint. Of course not. But, at least as you are splurging or scrimping, you can do it knowing that it’s with “after-God dollars”.)

2.         Give wholeheartedly – when you write that check, or do the online banking, stop and give thanks for a moment. God has provided you AGAIN with the money for you to invest in eternity. Don’t lose sight of the treasure principle, and the reward held out. Imagine that God would give us that kind of a stock tip. Invest your money in the kingdom with a whole heart!

3.         Give to the Kingdom – it’s not enough for us to give to human causes. We definitely need to be community minded and citizens of our towns, cities, states and country. But, ultimately, we are citizens of a heavenly country, so our giving needs to be heavily weighted there. Now, turn the analogy to warfare. We are in WW2 and everything is rationed for the war effort. Please make sure you are making your resources available to the front line battlegrounds (in Kinston and across the world). Give to Kingdom ministries above all.

4.         Give on a sliding scale / graduated scale – I was shocked and in disbelief when I first heard about this. You give an increased amount of each raise/bonus/inheritance/new source of income. Think about it: you are tithing a healthy 10% on your current income. That’s awesome. Now, you happen to get a 5% raise, or a $10,000 bonus, or a gift from your inlaws. You didn’t have that money yesterday, but now you do. You didn’t need it to live on yesterday. Now, how are you going to invest it? What if you gave 15% on that raise portion, bonus or gift? Not your total salary, just your increase. And the next year, what if you gave 20%? And on you go investing in the kingdom, and here’s the kicker: you don’t even feel it, because it’s on money that you’ve never yet incorporated into your family budget. I was shocked when I first heard about this. Now that Sue and I have been practicing this for 5 or 6 years, it’s a joy to grow in the grace of giving, in a truly attainable way.

Now for the question: How does God want you and your family to grow in giving? What action steps do you need to take? Which of the 4 instructions do you need to work on? Just pick one and start! He’ll meet you in it, and take you deeper into making investments that truly last and bring the greatest dividends.

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