June 12, 2025 • 21 mins
Episode 279- Strategic Generosity 2: How much should I give?, hosted by Mark Vance.
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Speaker 00 (00:00):
This is the Equip podcast from Cornerstone Church
of Ames, a podcast designed tohelp you live a gospel-fueled
and faithful life wherever Jesushas called you.
Well, welcome again to theEquip podcast from Cornerstone
Church.
My name is Mark Vance.
I am so glad that you arelistening to the Equip podcast
today.
And today is part of athree-part series.
(00:23):
We started last week talkingabout strategic generosity and
how it is that God has given uswealth and income in this world
to make an impact on not justthis world, but on his kingdom.
And so we're kind of goingthrough three parts here.
Last week, part one, we said instrategic generosity we wanna
understand the gospelmotivations behind strategic
(00:46):
generosity.
And so what we did was lookedat Luke chapters nine to 19,
this journey of Jesus towardJerusalem.
And we saw multiple kind of keyprinciples in that journey with
Jesus about how a gospelmentality should shape our
strategic generosity.
We saw that God's kingdommission is funded through
earthly generosity, that there'sa temporary nature of worldly
(01:09):
wealth.
You can't take it with you, Butbecause of the eternal reward
of giving, you can send itahead.
You can store up treasure inthe life to come.
You need to be careful though,because money, while it's a
great blessing, can be a greatdanger.
You can't serve God and money.
But once we have understood theradical grace of God, it fuels
radical generosity with ourmoney, of which all of that, we
(01:32):
will give an account to themaster where it's really not our
money, it's his anyways.
So that was all kind offoundational gospel generosity
perspective.
But today, Today, I want to goa little bit past that.
From the foundations of gospelgenerosity, I want to begin to
get in the next two podcastshere really, really practical.
First, I want to talk kind oftoday about this basics of what
(01:56):
I'm going to call strategicgenerosity and how much I should
give.
Like how much of the money thatGod entrusts to me does he mean
for me to invest in kingdompurposes?
And I want to be very, verypractical and try to consider
based on the income God's givenyou, the sort of generosity that
God is expecting of you.
But then part three, next week,I want to think about where I
(02:19):
should give and how I shouldgive to have the greatest
kingdom impact.
And throughout all of this, ifthere's a big idea of this, what
I'm trying to say is let's asChristians, not just spend our
time and our energy figuring outhow to multiply Let's as
Christians put the best energywe have, the best thinking we
have toward how we can stewardwhat God has given to us so that
(02:42):
we can advance the kingdom ofGod in the fullest possible way.
We should give strategicthought to this.
So in giving strategic thoughttoday, I want to talk about some
strategic thought about howmuch you should be giving.
And for that, I'm going to openus from 1 Timothy 6, three
verses that are really criticalhere.
I've spoken on these in thepast at Cornerstone in our
(03:04):
stewardship series, and they'rejust so foundationally
important.
I want to go back to them.
1 Timothy 6, verse 17 to 19says that we're to instruct
those who are rich in this age.
That's a key phrase.
I'm going to come back to that.
Rich in this age, not to bearrogant or to set their hope on
the uncertainty of wealth, buton God who richly provides us
(03:25):
with all things to enjoy.
Instruct those who are rich todo what is good, to be rich in
good works, to be generous andwilling to share, to store up
treasure for themselves as agood foundation for the age to
come so that they may take holdof what is truly life.
So, One of the key questionsthat we need to ask when we
(03:46):
consider how much we are to giveis to ask this question first.
Who is rich in this presentage?
Timothy uses that phrase, andhe uses the word rich often in 1
Timothy 6.
At one level, I've heardsomebody say, basically, if you
live in America and have a jobby any global standard, you're
pretty much rich.
(04:07):
And while I think that isprobably true, it doesn't feel
that way because the definitionof rich has like a cultural
contextual meaning.
So I don't know if that's thebest way to define it.
I'm going to give you abiblical definition, I think, of
what riches are.
2 Corinthians 8, 14, Paul'stalking to this church at
(04:27):
Corinth and he says to them, atthe present time, your surplus
is available for their need.
And I think that word surplushelps to give some definition to
what it means to be rich.
I think when we think of beingrich in this world, what we are
saying is we have a significantamount of surplus in either
income or assets that goes wellbeyond the meeting of our basic
(04:52):
needs.
So in a town like Ames, Iowa, asurplus of income would say,
okay, if the average householdincome is $75,000 in Ames, well,
if I'm making double that, thenI, by definition, have an
income surplus.
That is a surplus of availableincome to meet and exceed the
(05:12):
basic needs that I would have.
You might not have a surplus ofincome, but some people are
very rich in a surplus ofassets.
You own things, a home or abusiness or a property or an
investment.
You're part of a family thathas generational wealth.
In that case, you have asurplus of what you need.
In either case, those who havea surplus are easily able to
(05:35):
meet the basic needs that theyhave.
They're not fighting paycheckto paycheck.
They have excess.
Okay, now I'm going to pausehere and say this.
In America, we have to be clearhere.
What's happening with manyChristians is that the excess
that God has entrusted to us, weare eating up by consuming all
that money to keep up with theJoneses who live next door.
(05:57):
If you are buying new carsevery year, constantly going to
the store to shop, if you arefilling your Amazon cart every
day, if you are spending moneylike everybody else next to you,
you won't give money.
In other words, many peoplethat God has given a surplus of
income to so they could investin the kingdom have wasted that
(06:20):
surplus, spending it onthemselves.
Now, Paul is clear here, andthis is actually a really key
point.
In 1 Corinthians 6, it says,God richly provides us with all
things to enjoy.
There's nothing wrong withdriving a nice car or having
nice clothes.
The problem is, is if we areactually going beyond our means,
we're eating up all of what wecould be generous with, with
(06:42):
consumption.
You need to ask this question.
Is my limited amount ofgenerosity due to my excessive
amount of spending?
I think that's a questioneverybody's got to ask.
But now, if we've said thosewho are rich in the world have a
surplus, the question is, whatdoes Paul tell those who have
these surplus incomes?
What does he say to do withthem?
(07:04):
Well, he gives you fourcommands.
He says, to do what is good, tobe rich in good works, to be
generous and willing to share.
Rich in good works, not justrich in this world.
Doing what is good, generous inyour heart, willing to share.
But when we see that phrase,generous, that's what I want to
unpack the rest of the time.
(07:24):
What does it mean to begenerous?
What is generous giving?
Okay, I think again here, a bitof biblical context might help
us to frame that out.
So in the Bible, one of theways that the Old Testament
talks about giving is underneaththe concept of a tithe.
I'm not going to get into thatfully.
If you scroll through the pastepisodes of the Equip podcast, I
(07:47):
have one all about what tithingis.
I don't want to use thisparticularly to say every
Christian has to tithe.
I'm not going to go there.
But what I'm going to do is Iwant to use it as an
illustration.
Because in the Old Testament,there's a principle of tithing.
And the word tithe, it justmeans a 10th part.
So if you made $2,000, a tithewould be 10%, a tenth of that
(08:12):
$2,000.
$200 is a tithe.
So in other words, tithe ortithing is not a substitute word
for giving.
It is a very specific way ofgiving, of giving of 10%.
And in the Old Testamenteconomy, the tithe was not
considered generosity.
The tithe was considered abasic requirement.
(08:33):
So here's the point that I'mmaking.
generosity would be beyondbasic level.
So should Christians tithetoday?
Is that required?
There's so much Bible debatethere.
I'm not going to try to landthat.
It's hard for me to decide.
But here's the point that I domake.
I think there's a wise patternestablished of that tithe or
(08:55):
sort of 10% target of givingthat's a really helpful way to
train us when we think aboutwhat it means to be
strategically generous with whatGod has entrusted to us.
So what I would say is maybesomething like this, a tithe or
a 10% gift dominantly orientedtoward your local church where
you find your spiritualguidance, your roots in life.
(09:19):
That is like the trainingwheels.
It's the basic kind of generalidea of giving.
It's the sort of thing that youshould use to train your kids
if you're a parent.
If you wanna train your kids togive, when they make their
first $200, train them to give a10th of that to the church.
That's just the basic trainingwheels.
(09:40):
Establishing that pattern earlywill help to guard them against
spending in excess.
So use the training wheels, butif we're gonna consider for
those who are rich in thisworld, who have surplus, Paul is
gonna say, I think prettyclearly, generosity has to go
beyond the training wheels,basics.
(10:00):
If you have a surplus, you needto be thinking, how do I invest
that beyond the basics?
So giving the basic questionwe're asking today, how much
money should I be giving away?
That's actually deeply relatedin the Bible to how much money
you are making already.
Okay, so I'm going to use twotools that we've used at
(10:23):
Cornerstone here, a givingladder and a wealth pyramid.
For the giving ladder, simplyimagine a ladder with rungs.
At the bottom rung, wherehonestly the majority of people
in America are, would be therung of a non-giver.
Most people don't give anythingto anybody.
They spend all their money andmore on themselves.
Maybe the next layer up ispeople, this is probably the
(10:44):
majority of givers across NorthAmerica, Christian or otherwise,
they are what we would call aoccasional giver.
You go from non-giver tooccasional giver.
They give by impulse.
I saw the need on the TV.
Somebody asked me.
So I impulsively, yep, I'mwilling to do it.
They have a generous heart, butthey don't have generous
(11:04):
patterns.
They're impulsive.
The next step then is what wewould call a regular giver.
That means they have set asidean intentional dollar or
intentional percentage of theiroverall income that they want to
begin to give.
And this is the start of what Iwould call intentional giving.
Now, The tithe is one stepbeyond that.
(11:26):
So here again, imagine thelatter.
Non-giver to occasional toregular to a tithing giver.
Tithing, I think, is a target.
A target.
And I just want to say this.
I've said this before atCornerstone.
It's so crazy for me to thinkabout this.
It's estimated that if WesternChristians, Christians in
America and Europe, simplypractice tithing, we would
(11:48):
easily be able to fund tithing.
all the dollars we need for theentirety of the task of world
evangelism and feeding thehungry.
I mean, I just want you tothink about that.
You could basically eliminateworld poverty if Christians just
tithed.
That's a fantastic thing.
So I want to say this.
That is a powerful way to give.
(12:10):
That 10% target is a powerfultarget.
Okay, so non-giver, occasional,regular, stepping up the ladder
to tithing.
Now, the next level is generousgiver.
That's a tithe plus way ofgiving.
It's saying, because I have asurplus of income, I need to
build on the basics.
Above a generous giver, maybeat the top of the ladder, is a
(12:34):
sacrificial giver.
Here's what a sacrificial giveris.
My style and mode of living hasbeen significantly changed.
by my manner of giving.
I have so fully embraced thatit is more blessed to give than
to receive that I am absolutelyand sacrificially committed to
giving.
All right, so let's go theladder again.
Non-giver, occasional giver,regular giver, tithing giver,
(12:57):
generous giver, sacrificialgiver.
Here's what I want you to dowith the ladder.
Simply ask yourself thequestion, where are you at today
and are you satisfied withthat?
Where are you at in your givingtoday?
Maybe you'd say, Mark, I'm kindof impulsive.
I don't really have a regularpattern.
I want to be generous, but Ijust, I don't have that
(13:19):
established as a pattern in mylife.
Well, here's the admonition I'dhave for you.
Take the next step on theladder, okay?
Just go one step higher.
I'm not asking you to go fromoccasional to sacrificial.
I'm saying go from occasionalto regular.
Maybe you're regular.
You're currently giving apercentage, but as you look back
at it at the end of year withtaxes, you go, I actually only
(13:40):
gave like 4%.
Well, okay, let's step thepercentage forward.
Let's go from four to six.
Or you know what?
Why don't you just take theleap?
Go from four to 10.
You're like, man, that'd becrazy.
Well, yeah, it would be.
It'd be great.
It'd be a great sort of crazy.
There's good crazy stuff, youknow?
So my point with the givingladder, the image I'm giving you
(14:00):
is consider whether you shouldgo the next rung.
But now I want to pair thatgiving ladder up beside what I
would call a wealth pyramid,right?
Again, 2 Corinthians 8 ishelpful.
The gift is acceptableaccording to what a person has.
God has given you, 2Corinthians 8, 14, a surplus for
their need.
So that means giving in God'seconomy is based in part on
(14:27):
blessing.
God does not have the sameexpectation for what every
person gives.
In fact, I think I could go sofar as to say this.
If you are a person with very,very little income, in fact, you
have no excess income to give.
Simply making the step of beinga regular tithing giver is all
God would ever be asking.
To give beyond that wouldactually in many ways be unwise.
(14:51):
However, there are some who areoperating with incredible
financial surplus who are onlygiving as an occasional giver,
and I want to say occasionally.
why do you think God entrustedyou with that wealth?
He didn't do it for you, right?
So what I wanna say is, let'sthink of categories of wealth,
like a wealth pyramid.
At the base here, I'm gonna behonest.
(15:13):
For many in America, they're atthe basic level of what I would
call struggle.
The base of this pyramid, forthese at the struggle, they are
struggling to make their basicneeds, their basic food,
shelter.
They don't have enough money.
And for those people, I'd sayif you're at a struggle level,
your basic financial goal shouldbe to master financial basics.
(15:35):
Give first, save second, liveon what's left over, don't get
into bad debt, to begin to buildsome sort of emergency savings.
And to get there, I think thestruggle level, if you're there,
one of the most helpful thingsto get you out is to begin to
give regularly.
Notice I didn't say tithe.
Now, if you are tithing at astruggle level, God bless you.
(15:57):
I think that's great.
I think you should stay there.
But what I want to say is formost people at struggle level,
they aren't giving anything.
So beginning to give something,even if you don't have a lot of
something to give, will releasethe hold that money and things
have on your heart.
I take that even just theexample of the widow giving that
(16:18):
Jesus refers to in the NewTestament.
It's just regularly sayingGod's heart is to give.
So while I might not have much,I want to do something with
what I have.
That's giving something.
at a regular level for thosewho might struggle.
Okay, one step above thestruggle level.
Imagine this next step up thepyramid as the solid level, the
stable level.
(16:39):
We have solid income.
We actually have a surplusthat's going beyond our extra
needs now.
Your goals at this level shouldbe things like home ownership,
solid savings.
Things of that nature would bewise, but you will have to begin
at the solid level to resistfor the first time the lure to
take all of your surplus andradically expand your style of
(17:01):
living before you first expandyour patterns of giving.
This is a really big questionif you live at the solid level,
is does your level of givingmatch up to your standard of
living?
And here should be the target.
If you're at a solid incomelevel, you absolutely need to be
hitting a tithe or a tithe pluslevel as Christian.
(17:24):
This is what generosity wouldlook like.
So get to that target level.
And it And just, this is worthit.
If you will not reorient howyou give, money will have a hold
on your heart.
It's just going to.
Now I want to get to this, thatfinal level.
So we said there's a people whostruggle and at the struggle
financial level, I want yourtarget to be moving toward
(17:46):
giving regularly.
Once you're at the solid level,I want your target to be moving
toward tithing or tithe plussort of giving as a pattern.
But now let's go up to thatfinal level, the surplus level.
At this point, there'sexcessive amounts of income.
You have high prosperity.
You have far more income andassets than you need to fund any
(18:07):
sort of style of living thatyou would enjoy.
And now at this point, we mustbe incredibly clear that riches
are going to be a powerfultemptation for you.
Riches are not bad, but richesbiblically are a bit like
dynamite.
They can do incredible good orincredible damage depending on
(18:29):
how they're handled.
And so for those who are rich,that's why Paul says, now you
must warn those who are rich.
I have to, at this level, whenI talk about surplus level
giving, I'm giving a warning tosay, if you don't give your
money, your money is going toend up owning you.
It will.
And so for those that aresurplus, a tithe plus level of
(18:51):
generosity.
where you are giving wellbeyond that 10% target of
overall income, I think it's anecessary thing for you to guard
your heart against thedeceitfulness of wealth.
In other words, I'm not justtalking about this because as a
Christian pastor, I wantsomething from you.
I'm talking about this becauseI want something for you so
(19:12):
desperately.
I want you to know the freedomof living beyond the love of
money.
And so the only thing I knowthat can really help your heart
here is giving cheerfully aboveand beyond that 10% tithe level.
If you are living with asurplus of income, let's start
to step forward intentionallythe surplus of giving.
(19:33):
Take an honest look and say,how much did I give last year?
And you need to be stepping thedollars and percentages forward
significantly once you're inthat surplus target.
How much should I give?
Well, What I'm saying today isit's not an immediately simple
question.
It's not just a standardpercentage or standard dollar
for everyone.
Instead, we give in proportionwith the blessing that God has
(19:57):
given.
So maybe the better question toask is not how much should I
give, but does my style ofgiving match and exceed my style
of living?
Does my giving match God'sblessing?
That's the question as weconsider strategic generosity
and we think about how much togive.
So now next week, we're goingto consider really simply the
(20:20):
final question, which is ifwe're thinking about strategic
generosity, where should Iinvest?
We're thinking about this likegospel investors.
If we're just putting our moneyinto the stock market, you
know, there's a difference inthe effectiveness of types of
investments.
And I think the same is truewhen it comes to the kingdom of
God.
So next week, we'll dive in alittle further on this kind of
(20:40):
idea of strategic generosity andask not just what should I give
and how should I give, butwhere should I give it to make
the greatest impact for the sakeof the kingdom?
I hope you'll join us again forthe conclusion of that series.
I hope you'll continue toconsider how is it that my
giving is is lined up with whatGod has given to me.
This is the Equip podcast from Cornerstone Church
of Ames, a podcast designed tohelp you live a gospel-fueled
and faithful life wherever Jesushas called you.
Well, welcome again to theEquip podcast from Cornerstone
Church.
My name is Mark Vance.
I am so glad that you arelistening to the Equip podcast
today.
And today is part of athree-part series.
(00:23):
We started last week talkingabout strategic generosity and
how it is that God has given uswealth and income in this world
to make an impact on not justthis world, but on his kingdom.
And so we're kind of goingthrough three parts here.
Last week, part one, we said instrategic generosity we wanna
understand the gospelmotivations behind strategic
(00:46):
generosity.
And so what we did was lookedat Luke chapters nine to 19,
this journey of Jesus towardJerusalem.
And we saw multiple kind of keyprinciples in that journey with
Jesus about how a gospelmentality should shape our
strategic generosity.
We saw that God's kingdommission is funded through
earthly generosity, that there'sa temporary nature of worldly
(01:09):
wealth.
You can't take it with you, Butbecause of the eternal reward
of giving, you can send itahead.
You can store up treasure inthe life to come.
You need to be careful though,because money, while it's a
great blessing, can be a greatdanger.
You can't serve God and money.
But once we have understood theradical grace of God, it fuels
radical generosity with ourmoney, of which all of that, we
(01:32):
will give an account to themaster where it's really not our
money, it's his anyways.
So that was all kind offoundational gospel generosity
perspective.
But today, Today, I want to goa little bit past that.
From the foundations of gospelgenerosity, I want to begin to
get in the next two podcastshere really, really practical.
First, I want to talk kind oftoday about this basics of what
(01:56):
I'm going to call strategicgenerosity and how much I should
give.
Like how much of the money thatGod entrusts to me does he mean
for me to invest in kingdompurposes?
And I want to be very, verypractical and try to consider
based on the income God's givenyou, the sort of generosity that
God is expecting of you.
But then part three, next week,I want to think about where I
(02:19):
should give and how I shouldgive to have the greatest
kingdom impact.
And throughout all of this, ifthere's a big idea of this, what
I'm trying to say is let's asChristians, not just spend our
time and our energy figuring outhow to multiply Let's as
Christians put the best energywe have, the best thinking we
have toward how we can stewardwhat God has given to us so that
(02:42):
we can advance the kingdom ofGod in the fullest possible way.
We should give strategicthought to this.
So in giving strategic thoughttoday, I want to talk about some
strategic thought about howmuch you should be giving.
And for that, I'm going to openus from 1 Timothy 6, three
verses that are really criticalhere.
I've spoken on these in thepast at Cornerstone in our
(03:04):
stewardship series, and they'rejust so foundationally
important.
I want to go back to them.
1 Timothy 6, verse 17 to 19says that we're to instruct
those who are rich in this age.
That's a key phrase.
I'm going to come back to that.
Rich in this age, not to bearrogant or to set their hope on
the uncertainty of wealth, buton God who richly provides us
(03:25):
with all things to enjoy.
Instruct those who are rich todo what is good, to be rich in
good works, to be generous andwilling to share, to store up
treasure for themselves as agood foundation for the age to
come so that they may take holdof what is truly life.
So, One of the key questionsthat we need to ask when we
(03:46):
consider how much we are to giveis to ask this question first.
Who is rich in this presentage?
Timothy uses that phrase, andhe uses the word rich often in 1
Timothy 6.
At one level, I've heardsomebody say, basically, if you
live in America and have a jobby any global standard, you're
pretty much rich.
(04:07):
And while I think that isprobably true, it doesn't feel
that way because the definitionof rich has like a cultural
contextual meaning.
So I don't know if that's thebest way to define it.
I'm going to give you abiblical definition, I think, of
what riches are.
2 Corinthians 8, 14, Paul'stalking to this church at
(04:27):
Corinth and he says to them, atthe present time, your surplus
is available for their need.
And I think that word surplushelps to give some definition to
what it means to be rich.
I think when we think of beingrich in this world, what we are
saying is we have a significantamount of surplus in either
income or assets that goes wellbeyond the meeting of our basic
(04:52):
needs.
So in a town like Ames, Iowa, asurplus of income would say,
okay, if the average householdincome is $75,000 in Ames, well,
if I'm making double that, thenI, by definition, have an
income surplus.
That is a surplus of availableincome to meet and exceed the
(05:12):
basic needs that I would have.
You might not have a surplus ofincome, but some people are
very rich in a surplus ofassets.
You own things, a home or abusiness or a property or an
investment.
You're part of a family thathas generational wealth.
In that case, you have asurplus of what you need.
In either case, those who havea surplus are easily able to
(05:35):
meet the basic needs that theyhave.
They're not fighting paycheckto paycheck.
They have excess.
Okay, now I'm going to pausehere and say this.
In America, we have to be clearhere.
What's happening with manyChristians is that the excess
that God has entrusted to us, weare eating up by consuming all
that money to keep up with theJoneses who live next door.
(05:57):
If you are buying new carsevery year, constantly going to
the store to shop, if you arefilling your Amazon cart every
day, if you are spending moneylike everybody else next to you,
you won't give money.
In other words, many peoplethat God has given a surplus of
income to so they could investin the kingdom have wasted that
(06:20):
surplus, spending it onthemselves.
Now, Paul is clear here, andthis is actually a really key
point.
In 1 Corinthians 6, it says,God richly provides us with all
things to enjoy.
There's nothing wrong withdriving a nice car or having
nice clothes.
The problem is, is if we areactually going beyond our means,
we're eating up all of what wecould be generous with, with
(06:42):
consumption.
You need to ask this question.
Is my limited amount ofgenerosity due to my excessive
amount of spending?
I think that's a questioneverybody's got to ask.
But now, if we've said thosewho are rich in the world have a
surplus, the question is, whatdoes Paul tell those who have
these surplus incomes?
What does he say to do withthem?
(07:04):
Well, he gives you fourcommands.
He says, to do what is good, tobe rich in good works, to be
generous and willing to share.
Rich in good works, not justrich in this world.
Doing what is good, generous inyour heart, willing to share.
But when we see that phrase,generous, that's what I want to
unpack the rest of the time.
(07:24):
What does it mean to begenerous?
What is generous giving?
Okay, I think again here, a bitof biblical context might help
us to frame that out.
So in the Bible, one of theways that the Old Testament
talks about giving is underneaththe concept of a tithe.
I'm not going to get into thatfully.
If you scroll through the pastepisodes of the Equip podcast, I
(07:47):
have one all about what tithingis.
I don't want to use thisparticularly to say every
Christian has to tithe.
I'm not going to go there.
But what I'm going to do is Iwant to use it as an
illustration.
Because in the Old Testament,there's a principle of tithing.
And the word tithe, it justmeans a 10th part.
So if you made $2,000, a tithewould be 10%, a tenth of that
(08:12):
$2,000.
$200 is a tithe.
So in other words, tithe ortithing is not a substitute word
for giving.
It is a very specific way ofgiving, of giving of 10%.
And in the Old Testamenteconomy, the tithe was not
considered generosity.
The tithe was considered abasic requirement.
(08:33):
So here's the point that I'mmaking.
generosity would be beyondbasic level.
So should Christians tithetoday?
Is that required?
There's so much Bible debatethere.
I'm not going to try to landthat.
It's hard for me to decide.
But here's the point that I domake.
I think there's a wise patternestablished of that tithe or
(08:55):
sort of 10% target of givingthat's a really helpful way to
train us when we think aboutwhat it means to be
strategically generous with whatGod has entrusted to us.
So what I would say is maybesomething like this, a tithe or
a 10% gift dominantly orientedtoward your local church where
you find your spiritualguidance, your roots in life.
(09:19):
That is like the trainingwheels.
It's the basic kind of generalidea of giving.
It's the sort of thing that youshould use to train your kids
if you're a parent.
If you wanna train your kids togive, when they make their
first $200, train them to give a10th of that to the church.
That's just the basic trainingwheels.
(09:40):
Establishing that pattern earlywill help to guard them against
spending in excess.
So use the training wheels, butif we're gonna consider for
those who are rich in thisworld, who have surplus, Paul is
gonna say, I think prettyclearly, generosity has to go
beyond the training wheels,basics.
(10:00):
If you have a surplus, you needto be thinking, how do I invest
that beyond the basics?
So giving the basic questionwe're asking today, how much
money should I be giving away?
That's actually deeply relatedin the Bible to how much money
you are making already.
Okay, so I'm going to use twotools that we've used at
(10:23):
Cornerstone here, a givingladder and a wealth pyramid.
For the giving ladder, simplyimagine a ladder with rungs.
At the bottom rung, wherehonestly the majority of people
in America are, would be therung of a non-giver.
Most people don't give anythingto anybody.
They spend all their money andmore on themselves.
Maybe the next layer up ispeople, this is probably the
(10:44):
majority of givers across NorthAmerica, Christian or otherwise,
they are what we would call aoccasional giver.
You go from non-giver tooccasional giver.
They give by impulse.
I saw the need on the TV.
Somebody asked me.
So I impulsively, yep, I'mwilling to do it.
They have a generous heart, butthey don't have generous
(11:04):
patterns.
They're impulsive.
The next step then is what wewould call a regular giver.
That means they have set asidean intentional dollar or
intentional percentage of theiroverall income that they want to
begin to give.
And this is the start of what Iwould call intentional giving.
Now, The tithe is one stepbeyond that.
(11:26):
So here again, imagine thelatter.
Non-giver to occasional toregular to a tithing giver.
Tithing, I think, is a target.
A target.
And I just want to say this.
I've said this before atCornerstone.
It's so crazy for me to thinkabout this.
It's estimated that if WesternChristians, Christians in
America and Europe, simplypractice tithing, we would
(11:48):
easily be able to fund tithing.
all the dollars we need for theentirety of the task of world
evangelism and feeding thehungry.
I mean, I just want you tothink about that.
You could basically eliminateworld poverty if Christians just
tithed.
That's a fantastic thing.
So I want to say this.
That is a powerful way to give.
(12:10):
That 10% target is a powerfultarget.
Okay, so non-giver, occasional,regular, stepping up the ladder
to tithing.
Now, the next level is generousgiver.
That's a tithe plus way ofgiving.
It's saying, because I have asurplus of income, I need to
build on the basics.
Above a generous giver, maybeat the top of the ladder, is a
(12:34):
sacrificial giver.
Here's what a sacrificial giveris.
My style and mode of living hasbeen significantly changed.
by my manner of giving.
I have so fully embraced thatit is more blessed to give than
to receive that I am absolutelyand sacrificially committed to
giving.
All right, so let's go theladder again.
Non-giver, occasional giver,regular giver, tithing giver,
(12:57):
generous giver, sacrificialgiver.
Here's what I want you to dowith the ladder.
Simply ask yourself thequestion, where are you at today
and are you satisfied withthat?
Where are you at in your givingtoday?
Maybe you'd say, Mark, I'm kindof impulsive.
I don't really have a regularpattern.
I want to be generous, but Ijust, I don't have that
(13:19):
established as a pattern in mylife.
Well, here's the admonition I'dhave for you.
Take the next step on theladder, okay?
Just go one step higher.
I'm not asking you to go fromoccasional to sacrificial.
I'm saying go from occasionalto regular.
Maybe you're regular.
You're currently giving apercentage, but as you look back
at it at the end of year withtaxes, you go, I actually only
(13:40):
gave like 4%.
Well, okay, let's step thepercentage forward.
Let's go from four to six.
Or you know what?
Why don't you just take theleap?
Go from four to 10.
You're like, man, that'd becrazy.
Well, yeah, it would be.
It'd be great.
It'd be a great sort of crazy.
There's good crazy stuff, youknow?
So my point with the givingladder, the image I'm giving you
(14:00):
is consider whether you shouldgo the next rung.
But now I want to pair thatgiving ladder up beside what I
would call a wealth pyramid,right?
Again, 2 Corinthians 8 ishelpful.
The gift is acceptableaccording to what a person has.
God has given you, 2Corinthians 8, 14, a surplus for
their need.
So that means giving in God'seconomy is based in part on
(14:27):
blessing.
God does not have the sameexpectation for what every
person gives.
In fact, I think I could go sofar as to say this.
If you are a person with very,very little income, in fact, you
have no excess income to give.
Simply making the step of beinga regular tithing giver is all
God would ever be asking.
To give beyond that wouldactually in many ways be unwise.
(14:51):
However, there are some who areoperating with incredible
financial surplus who are onlygiving as an occasional giver,
and I want to say occasionally.
why do you think God entrustedyou with that wealth?
He didn't do it for you, right?
So what I wanna say is, let'sthink of categories of wealth,
like a wealth pyramid.
At the base here, I'm gonna behonest.
(15:13):
For many in America, they're atthe basic level of what I would
call struggle.
The base of this pyramid, forthese at the struggle, they are
struggling to make their basicneeds, their basic food,
shelter.
They don't have enough money.
And for those people, I'd sayif you're at a struggle level,
your basic financial goal shouldbe to master financial basics.
(15:35):
Give first, save second, liveon what's left over, don't get
into bad debt, to begin to buildsome sort of emergency savings.
And to get there, I think thestruggle level, if you're there,
one of the most helpful thingsto get you out is to begin to
give regularly.
Notice I didn't say tithe.
Now, if you are tithing at astruggle level, God bless you.
(15:57):
I think that's great.
I think you should stay there.
But what I want to say is formost people at struggle level,
they aren't giving anything.
So beginning to give something,even if you don't have a lot of
something to give, will releasethe hold that money and things
have on your heart.
I take that even just theexample of the widow giving that
(16:18):
Jesus refers to in the NewTestament.
It's just regularly sayingGod's heart is to give.
So while I might not have much,I want to do something with
what I have.
That's giving something.
at a regular level for thosewho might struggle.
Okay, one step above thestruggle level.
Imagine this next step up thepyramid as the solid level, the
stable level.
(16:39):
We have solid income.
We actually have a surplusthat's going beyond our extra
needs now.
Your goals at this level shouldbe things like home ownership,
solid savings.
Things of that nature would bewise, but you will have to begin
at the solid level to resistfor the first time the lure to
take all of your surplus andradically expand your style of
(17:01):
living before you first expandyour patterns of giving.
This is a really big questionif you live at the solid level,
is does your level of givingmatch up to your standard of
living?
And here should be the target.
If you're at a solid incomelevel, you absolutely need to be
hitting a tithe or a tithe pluslevel as Christian.
(17:24):
This is what generosity wouldlook like.
So get to that target level.
And it And just, this is worthit.
If you will not reorient howyou give, money will have a hold
on your heart.
It's just going to.
Now I want to get to this, thatfinal level.
So we said there's a people whostruggle and at the struggle
financial level, I want yourtarget to be moving toward
(17:46):
giving regularly.
Once you're at the solid level,I want your target to be moving
toward tithing or tithe plussort of giving as a pattern.
But now let's go up to thatfinal level, the surplus level.
At this point, there'sexcessive amounts of income.
You have high prosperity.
You have far more income andassets than you need to fund any
(18:07):
sort of style of living thatyou would enjoy.
And now at this point, we mustbe incredibly clear that riches
are going to be a powerfultemptation for you.
Riches are not bad, but richesbiblically are a bit like
dynamite.
They can do incredible good orincredible damage depending on
(18:29):
how they're handled.
And so for those who are rich,that's why Paul says, now you
must warn those who are rich.
I have to, at this level, whenI talk about surplus level
giving, I'm giving a warning tosay, if you don't give your
money, your money is going toend up owning you.
It will.
And so for those that aresurplus, a tithe plus level of
(18:51):
generosity.
where you are giving wellbeyond that 10% target of
overall income, I think it's anecessary thing for you to guard
your heart against thedeceitfulness of wealth.
In other words, I'm not justtalking about this because as a
Christian pastor, I wantsomething from you.
I'm talking about this becauseI want something for you so
(19:12):
desperately.
I want you to know the freedomof living beyond the love of
money.
And so the only thing I knowthat can really help your heart
here is giving cheerfully aboveand beyond that 10% tithe level.
If you are living with asurplus of income, let's start
to step forward intentionallythe surplus of giving.
(19:33):
Take an honest look and say,how much did I give last year?
And you need to be stepping thedollars and percentages forward
significantly once you're inthat surplus target.
How much should I give?
Well, What I'm saying today isit's not an immediately simple
question.
It's not just a standardpercentage or standard dollar
for everyone.
Instead, we give in proportionwith the blessing that God has
(19:57):
given.
So maybe the better question toask is not how much should I
give, but does my style ofgiving match and exceed my style
of living?
Does my giving match God'sblessing?
That's the question as weconsider strategic generosity
and we think about how much togive.
So now next week, we're goingto consider really simply the
(20:20):
final question, which is ifwe're thinking about strategic
generosity, where should Iinvest?
We're thinking about this likegospel investors.
If we're just putting our moneyinto the stock market, you
know, there's a difference inthe effectiveness of types of
investments.
And I think the same is truewhen it comes to the kingdom of
God.
So next week, we'll dive in alittle further on this kind of
(20:40):
idea of strategic generosity andask not just what should I give
and how should I give, butwhere should I give it to make
the greatest impact for the sakeof the kingdom?
I hope you'll join us again forthe conclusion of that series.
I hope you'll continue toconsider how is it that my
giving is is lined up with whatGod has given to me.
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