Opening thought:
VIDEO: Tom Monaghan, Dominoes Pizza
Nehemiah, one of the greatest
leaders in the Bible, had pulled off the building of the city walls of
Jerusalem in fifty-two days – unbelievable.
After a 12-year tour of duty as governor of Judea, Nehemiah returned in
433 BC to report to Artaxerxes on his work (Nehemiah 2:6; 13:6). While he was
gone, the people gradually abandoned their “binding agreement” to obey
carefully God’s Torah (Neh. 10:28-39).
Some people don’t like a preacher to
talk about money from the pulpit. In the Bible, there are 40 verses on baptism, 275 verses on prayer, 350 verses on faith, 650 verses on love -- and 2,350 verses that relate specifically to finances and
material possessions.[1]
Two men were marooned on an Island. One man paced
back and forth, worried and scared while the other man sat back and started
sunning himself. The first man said to the second man, "Aren’t you
afraid we are about to die?" "No," said the second man, "I
make $100,000 a week and I tithe faithfully to my church every week. My pastor
will find me."
Contextual Notes:
 Image via Wikipedia |
| Nehemiah rebuilding the Wall |
Upon returning for a second term as
governor, Nehemiah was shocked to find how much Israel’s obedience had
deteriorated. The high priest Eliashib (by
now an elderly man, Ezra 10:6), had given guest quarters in the Temple complex
(Neh 13:4-5) to no less than the infamous Tobiah the Ammonite, the enemy who
had threatened war on Israel for rebuilding the wall! (Eliashib’s granddaughter
had married Tobiah the Ammonite’s son.) He also learns that services at the
Temple have been abandoned because God’s tithes had not been paid, and the
Levites who served at the Temple have been forced to go back to their farms in
order to survive (Neh. 13:10-14). The people are working on Sabbath (Neh.
13:15-22), and marrying foreign wives (Neh. 13:23-31). It was a common ancient
practice to store valuables in a temple complex. It is the origin of banking in
the ancient world.
Key Truth: Nehemiah
wrote Nehemiah 13:1-14 to explain to believers how
God works through obedience in giving, to invest resources, tithe regularly,
and
Key Application: Today I
want to show you what God’s Word says about giving.
Pray and Read:
Nehemiah 13:1-14
Sermon Points:
1. Invest
resources for Kingdom benefit (Neh 13:1-9).
2. Tithe
regularly for Kingdom benefit (Neh 13:10-12).
3. Entrust
resources to Kingdom people (Neh 13:13).
4. Cover
all giving in prayer and viewpoint of eternity (Neh 13:14).
Exposition: Note
well,
1. INVEST
RESOURCES FOR KINGDOM BENEFIT (Neh. 13:1-9).
a. The people had heard the Law read (Neh.
8:1-8) from Deuteronomy 23:3-6 that because the Ammonites and Moabites had
refused them access (Num. 22:22-24) to their resources to cross to enter the
Promised Land hundreds of years before, that none of them would be permitted in
the assembly (Neh. 13:2; Ezra 8:29).
(Unless of course, like Ruth the Moabitess, you choose to follow the
Lord.) Deuteronomy 23:3-6: 3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants
may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. 4 For they did not come to
meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they
hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on
you. 5 However, the
LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing
for you, because the LORD your God loves you. 6 Do not seek a treaty of friendship with
them as long as you live.
b. Nehemiah found that resources were
being used to benefit someone personally at the Temple, that resources were not
being invested to honor the Lord. And benefits were being accrued even to
Tobiah, an enemy of the very Temple in which he lived for free! Nehemiah did
not hesitate. He did not seek an intermediate solution. He did not compromise. Nehemiah
had a Kingdom mindset and was not going to compromise by allowing the personal
benefit of an enemy of God’s people to continue. Reform the way the church
spends money and reform the church.
c. Nehemiah’s action is a foretaste of
Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:12-13): 12Jesus
entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He
overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling
doves. 13"It is written," he said
to them, “'My house will be called a house of prayer,'[a] but
you are making it a 'den of robbers.'[b]”
d. ILLUSTRATION:
Indulgences to pay out of purgatory. When
the Catholic Church needed money for building projects re: rebuilding St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X came up with a great funding
strategy. In 1517, they began selling
indulgences, certificates which cut your time in purgatory, a pre-Hell holding
pen of fire and torture in which you can get a second chance at heaven. Want to
pay your way out? Want to pay Mama’s way out? Want to pay your wayward child’s
way out? Buy Indulgences! Various indulgences would pay you out from
several years to 10,000 years. The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause
provoked Martin Luther to write his 95 theses, protesting what he saw as the
purchase and sale of salvation. According
to tradition, he nailed these theses to a church door in Wittenberg.Martin Luther went back to Scripture and found that we
are justified by faith alone, not by paying our way out of an imaginary
purgatory. From this
controversy the Protestant
Reformation was launched.
e. APPLICATION: We must spend funds on Kingdom
priorities. We will be audited at the Judgment.
f. The Church’s Squandering of
Resources: Today,
85% of every dollar given in a church offering stays at that church. Is that
missions? In 2000, 97 dollars of every 100 of the entire income ($269.61B) of
all Christian organizations was spent on, and primarily benefited, other
Christians at home or abroad: spent on ministering to Christians, $2.90 ($7.8B)
on already-evangelized non-Christians, and 3 cents ($0.81B) on unevangelized
non-Christians,[2]
in 2010 that has dropped to 2 cents.[3]
2. TITHE
REGULARLY FOR THE KINGDOM’S BENEFIT (Neh 13:10-12).
a. Services at the Temple had been
abandoned. The Levites and priests had to feed their families, so when the
people stopped tithing, the funding ran out, and they had to find other work
farming or otherwise. (Neh 13:10). Nehemiah rebuked the officials (Neh. 13:11),
restored the sacred duties and reintroduced the practice of tithing (Neh.
13:12).
b. ILLUSTRATION: I
like the old story about the guy who came to church with his family. As they
were driving home afterwards he was complaining about everything. He said, “The
music was too loud. The sermon was too long. The announcements were unclear.
The building was hot. The people were unfriendly.” He went on and on,
complaining about virtually everything. Finally, his very observant son said,
“Dad, you’ve got to admit it wasn’t a bad show for just a dollar.” Isn’t that
reality? It seems the ones who give the most complain the least and vice-versa.
When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.
c. APPLICATION: The Church’s Great Storehouse
of Wealth. In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion
in income.[4]
Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2
trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.[5]
The average donation church member in 2000 who attend U.S. Protestant churches
was about $17 a week.[6]
The average amount of money given by a full or confirmed member of a
U.S. Christian church in 2004 was $691.93. This comes to an average of $13.31
per week.[7] Only 1/3 to ½ of church attenders
give anything at all.[8]
d. Among church members of 11 primary
Protestant denominations (or their historical antecedents) in the United States
and Canada, per-member giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than
in either 1921 or 1933. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income
was 2.9 percent. In 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression, per-member
giving grew to 3.3 percent. By 2000, after a half-century of unprecedented
prosperity, giving had fallen to 2.6 percent.[9]
e. Overall, only 3 to 5 percent of
Americans who donate money to a church tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes,
though many more claim to do so.[10]
Thirty-three percent of U.S. born-again Christians say it is impossible for
them to get ahead in life because of the financial debt they have incurred.[11]
f. The Potential for Funding the
Harvest: If members
of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving
to the Old Testament’s minimum standard of giving (10 percent of income) in 2004,
an additional $164 billion a year would become available.[12]
Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the
total represents much more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great
Commission.[13]
g.
Tithing
as a practice continues to decline.
“The proportion of households that tithe their income to their church—that is, give at least ten percent of their income to that ministry—has dropped by 62% in the past year, from 8% in 2001 to just 3% of adults during 2002. Born again adults, who represent 38% of the nation’s population, also sustained a decline in generosity during the past couple of years. In 2000, 12% of all born again adults tithed. The percentage rose to 14% in 2001, but dropped to only 6% in 2002. Reasons for this decline include concern about financial security, fear about terrorism, failure of parents to pass along this practice to their children, the Catholic church’s pedophilia scandal, the rise of para-church ministries and the rapid growth of Hispanics, very few of whom give generously to their churches.[14]
“The proportion of households that tithe their income to their church—that is, give at least ten percent of their income to that ministry—has dropped by 62% in the past year, from 8% in 2001 to just 3% of adults during 2002. Born again adults, who represent 38% of the nation’s population, also sustained a decline in generosity during the past couple of years. In 2000, 12% of all born again adults tithed. The percentage rose to 14% in 2001, but dropped to only 6% in 2002. Reasons for this decline include concern about financial security, fear about terrorism, failure of parents to pass along this practice to their children, the Catholic church’s pedophilia scandal, the rise of para-church ministries and the rapid growth of Hispanics, very few of whom give generously to their churches.[14]
h. 20-35% of
church attendee giving records are blank ($0 of recorded offerings
given). In 1999, ~$3 billion was given to 600 Christian mission agencies,
$60B to local churches. Compare this to $58 billion for soda
products, $24 billion in jewelry store sales, $8 billion for movies theaters,
$13 billion for chocolate products, $38 billion in vending machine sales, $11
billion for comp/video games, $7 billion greeting cards, $23 billion for toys,
$91 billion in lawn/garden industry, $40 billion for pets, $60B on weight-loss.[15]
3. ENTRUST
KINGDOM RESOURCES TO RELIABLE PEOPLE (Neh. 13:13).
a.
Nehemiah
appointed four reliable men to be in charge of the storerooms where they were
made responsible for distributing the supplies to their brothers.
b.
No
one person without accountability should ever have control of the finances in a
church. There must be checks and balances. There must be accountability.
c.
It
seems sometimes like the church has a hard time spelling the word
prophet/profit.
d.
Mark
Murnan, a criminal defense investigator, says that many Christians fail to heed
Jesus’ admonition to be “wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). As a result, scams
such as Financial Federated and Baptist Foundation of America have swindled
Christians of billions of dollars. Using examples of past religion-based scams,
Murnan points to five common elements of fraud: promises of high returns over a
short period, recruitment of fellow church members, appeals to Scripture,
complicated explanation of the investment, and suspect phrases and tax
strategies.
e.
Columnist
J. Lee Grady writes of his growing
sense of alarm over the financial practices of some within the charismatic
circle. Citing examples of faith preachers with extravagant expenses and
televised preachers who promise miracles and blessings for donors, Grady says
“we've been taken hostage by what I call the charismatic cartel.” He asks his
readers to “boycott those who are turning God's house into a den of thieves.”
4. COVER
ALL GIVING IN PRAYER AND VIEWPOINT OF ETERNITY (Neh. 13:14).
a. Remember: Heb zakar – not only mental activity but behavior appropriate to
memory. Nehemiah asks God to remember him not b/c God forgets, but instead to
request Him to respond in an appropriate fashion. He is expressing faith that
God will reward him. Nehemiah turns in prayer to God, his signature leadership
characteristic, not seeking glory for himself, but rather seeking to serve God
with all his heart.
b. ILLUSTRATION: Ann Landers had an interesting letter in her column
once. It was from a girl who wrote about her aunt and uncle. She said, "My
uncle was the tightest man I’ve ever known. All his life, every time he got
paid he took $20 out of his paycheck & put it under his mattress.
Then he got sick & was about to die. As he was dying, he said to his wife,
"I want you to promise me one thing." "Promise what?" she
asked. "I want you to promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money
from under the mattress & put it in my casket so that I can take it all
with me." The girl’s letter went on with the story. "He died,
& his wife kept her promise. She went in & got all that money the day
he died & went to the bank & deposited it, and wrote out a check and
put it in his casket."
INVITATION:
[1] Brian Kluth, “Twenty Financial and
Generosity Facts Impacting Churches,” http://www.kluth.org/church/20%20Financial%20and%20Generosity%20Fast%20Facts2.pdf
[2] Sermon statistics come from http://www.generousgiving.org/stat_footnotes.html
[7] John Ronsvalle and Sylvia
Ronsvalle, The State of Church Giving
through 2004: Will We Will? 16th ed. (Champaign, Ill.: Empty Tomb, 2006),
17.
[8] The United Methodist Foundation of
Los Angeles, Money and Religion, rpt. in “Lifestyle Stewardship: Learning the
Freedom of Generous Giving,” Alliance
Life (January 2001), 13.
[14] http://www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=4&page=504#8#8;
http://www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=4&page=504#11#11
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