No Price Too High!

Luke 14:27-28

PSBC 1/7/01

In a nutshell: God gave a rule in the Old Testament of the tithe. But in the New Testament God gives principles for giving. He says we are to change our natures by following His Kingdom principles for giving: Give from a willing heart; Give from a generous heart; Give from a compassionate heart. Following these New Testament principles allows God's work to go forward with power.

I. Introduction

A. "No price too high" story

A story is told about a lady, many years ago, who frequently took shopping trips to remote areas along the east coast to shop looking for unusual antiques. On one particular trip she found a beautiful chair for sale at an antique store in a remote town. Even though the price appeared to be too expensive, she was irresistibly drawn to that chair. As she considered the purchase, she thought it would be wise to contact her husband and get his advice. So, she promptly went to the telegraph office and sent a telegram to her husband, asking if he thought it was all right to buy the chair. After receiving his reply she went joyfully back to the antique dealer bought the prized chair.

On her way home she kept thinking how proud her husband would be of the purchase. But when she arrived home, and showed her husband the chair, he was furious. "Didn't you receive my reply? I specifically told you not to buy that chair!" The astonished wife pulled the crumpled telegram out of her purse and read the words on it to her husband..., "No price too high!" The husband said, "That's not what I said! What I said was, ‘No! Price too high.'" The person in the telegraph office had made a mistake with the punctuation.

B. Transition

Now, the Bible doesn't say much about punctuation, but it does say quite a bit on this issue of cost. I'm going to take you to several verses this morning, but if you want a key one to underline, that forms the basis for today's message, turn to Luke 14:27-28. There it says...

Luke 14:27-28
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

Now, don't lose sight of what Jesus is speaking about. He's not talking about building buildings; but He's talking about building the Kingdom of God. He wanted to make sure that the multitudes realized that following Him demanded something significant–a complete paradigm shift from what is popular and easy to something that would change the world. And the same is true today.

Billy Graham said it well in the words on the front of your bulletins this morning...

Jesus invited us, not to a picnic, but to a pilgrimage; not to a frolic, but to a fight. He offered us, not an excursion, but an execution. Our Savior said that we would have to be ready to die to self, sin, and the world. (Billy Graham)

And I think where this is especially evident is in how we handle money.

C. Principles from the Word

As we look in God's Word today, you're going to find something very interesting. No matter how rich or how poor you are.... No matter how generous or how selfish a personality you have... and No matter what your debt ratio or credit is like... If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, the principles from God's Word about handling money are the same for everyone in this room. Following them is a part of "counting the cost" that Jesus speaks about in Luke 14. Following them is part of denying self, and taking up your cross and following Him.

So, let's look at the three key principles that God sets down in the New Testament, regarding our use of the money we have...

II. Principle No.1--Give From A Willing Heart

For the first principle, I want to look at is talked about in the New Testament book of 2nd Corinthians...

In 2nd Corinthians, we find a most unusual example of Christian giving. It seems that when the churches in Macedonia received news of the great need suffered by their fellow Christians in Jerusalem, they responded with such heartfelt willingness to give that even the apostle Paul was astonished, and felt compelled to write these words...

2 Cor 8:1-4
1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.
2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,
4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

Never, in all my years of pastoral ministry have I had someone plead with me to let them have the privilege of giving their money to God's work. I don't think Paul had ever experienced this, as well. And, he was astonished!

You see, the Macedonian church demonstrated the first principle of giving money to God's work. They gave with a WILLING HEART.

Illustration: At one of the churches I served, one of our missionary couples retired and the husband joined our pastoral staff. One of the first things this couple planned to do when they settled back in the states, was to purchase a new car. Because the one they had was very old, and they didn't trust it's reliability.

Knowing that their pension was small, and their part-time employment with the church was supplemental at best, they didn't want car payments, and they didn't want high repair bills on an old car. So, with the money they received from our church as a retirement gift, they planned to purchase a new economical car, to replace their older one.

One Sunday morning, a missionary executive was speaking about his organization's work in a third world country. He shared about the many needs of the missionary families that were part of this organization. He told of one family's need for canned goods to feed the hungry, and how another needed Bibles to give to people in a certain tribe. And He told of one missionary couple who had a real need for a dependable vehicle to help them reach tribes in their territory that were separated by long distances.

After the service, this retired missionary couple got in their older car, and both of them sat in silence for several minutes. They were both thinking, "We could give them this car, since we are getting a new one, but how would we get it to them in the country they are serving. That would take a lot of money." So they prayed about the need. And almost at once they both looked at each other, and realized that giving the car they were driving would be very difficult. But giving the money they had saved up to buy a new one, would be very simple.

Wow! That's giving from a willing heart! It's the same kind of giving that Paul recognized in the Macedonians when he wrote:

2 Cor 8:2
2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

To the Macedonians and to this retired missionary couple, giving was not an option–it was an opportunity to share in what God was doing!

Now, in case you are feeling sorry for the missionary couple who sent the money and kept their old car, don't be. They decided to take that old car to a mechanic in the church and have him check it out. They left it with him for two days. When they came back to pick it up, the mechanic told them that he went over it from top to bottom, motor, brakes, tires, alignment, everything, and there was nothing to repair!

I think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said in Luke 6:38...

Luke 6:38
38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

That, friends, is what happens when a child of God gives from a willing heart.

III. Principle No. 2--Give From A Generous Heart

To understand the second principle for giving, you have to understand a very basic concept taught in the Bible–
God owns everything. He all there is, from nothing. Therefore, He owns it. So, from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea, God owns it. From the change that falls out of your pockets into the cushions of your sofa to your entire paycheck or retirement check..., before taxes..., God owns it.

Psalm 50:12 has God speaking to this point...

Ps 50:12
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Friends, God doesn't need us to make Him wealthy. But God is very interested in our attitude toward giving... even more than the gift itself. So the second principle is this: Give From A Generous Heart. Because the pool from which you give doesn't belong to you anyway.

Illustration: When candy manufacturer, John S. Huyler started his Mars candy business, he made the same pledge that Jacob made in Genesis 28:22... "of all that you give me I will surely give you a tenth." So, he went to the bank and opened a special account which he initialed "M.P." Into that fund he regularly entered a proportionate amount of his income. When people would see the letters "M.P." on the top of the checks, they would ask what it meant. John told them that it stood for "My Partner".

As he kept God uppermost in his business and in all his transactions, his business grew at a phenomenal rate. And each week the "My Partner" account received increasingly large sums. Through this account, John was able to give large sums to public and private Christian endeavors. Organizations and individuals benefited from his generosity. His business associates were amazed at how much he was able to donate. But whenever John Huyler gave a contribution, he always asked that he not receive any thanks or glory for his actions. He asked each recipient to offer praise to God alone. He would say, "After all, the money isn't mine, it's the Lord's!"

Friend, don't be mistaken, God doesn't need your money. But, He is very concerned with the condition of your heart when you do give it. Are you giving out of a heart of generosity, or out of a heart of a miser. It matters a lot to Him. I came across this paragraph in my study this week. It says quite a bit about this idea of a generous heart...

- I have never known a generous person to complain about how much money it takes to run a church. Poor givers gripe about how much it takes; generous givers express concern that they don't do more.
-I have never known a generous family that was not generally happy.
-I have never known a stingy, miserly family that was not generally unhappy about many things.
-I have never known a person who was critical of most things, and mad about many things, who was generous.
-I have come to believe that most people who feel we talk too much about money, never really want to talk about money at all. Generous people enjoy talking about it.
-I have come to believe that there is a direct connection that exists between a person's faith and a person's generosity. Those who give generously tend to become more faithful; and those who give miserly tend to become more faithless. (Author unknown)

IV. Principle No. 3--Give From A Compassionate Heart

The third principle is this... Give from a COMPASSIONATE HEART.

No one has ever exemplified a more compassionate heart than our Lord Jesus. Listen to what Matthew 9:36 tells us Jesus felt when He saw the multitudes...

Matt 9:36
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus saw peoples' needs and had compassion on them. But not only did He feel compassion, He acted out of compassion.
-It was with a compassionate heart that Jesus fed the 5000.
-It was out of a compassionate heart that Jesus cleansed the leper.
-It was from a compassionate heart that He gave life back to the widow's son.
-And it was because of a compassionate heart that he endured the most cruel death ever devised by man, in order to purchase our salvation.

In all these instances, Jesus was compassionate, knowing full well the cost of that compassion. He knew that some would laugh at Him out of ridicule. He knew that some would turn their backs on him out of apathy. He knew others would reject Him out of hatred and fear. But He still looked at every person in this room with a heart of compassionate action and basically said, "There is no price too high to pay for your salvation from the consequences of your sin;
"There is no price too high to pay for your reconciliation to a holy God; and
"There is no price to high to pay for your restoration to a relationship with the God who would rather die than see you spend eternity without Him."

Friends, listen, compassion and commitment go hand in hand. Jesus had a lot to say about life's priorities and the cost required of those who would follow Him. But never lose sight of the fact that our Lord Jesus never asks you to do anything for others that He hasn't already done by His example.

2 Cor 8:9
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

V. Application

So there you have it: Three principles that are at the heart of God's plan for stewardship of money–Give from a willing heart; Give from a generous heart; and Give from a compassionate heart.

A. Nature Changers

"But hold it Tom. Didn't you forget something very important? Not once have you mentioned tithing. What kind of stewardship message is this any way?" I'll tell you what kind it is...it's a New Testament message. You see, once you commit to Jesus' principles, then you can look at the goal. God's goal for all of us, and therefore our goal for ourselves is that we all be tithers. But starting with a mandate to tithe, is setting up a law. And as we saw just two weeks ago, human beings are by nature law breaking people. So if we only follow a law, we will never succeed in giving God what He is do. Because we'll wind up breaking the law somewhere down the line!

But following the three principles of stewardship–give from a willing heart; a generous heart; and a compassionate heart..., will change us. These three principles are three more "nature changers". Committing to them, changes us from the inside out. And changing our nature to become more like Christ, and less like self, means that we will follow God's law because we want to, not because we have to.

B. Commit to the principles

Now, let me say a word to some of you in this congregation who have gotten yourselves into financial difficulty through business obligations, foolish handling of credit, or bad investments..., and you are not tithing right now, and there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of that financial tunnel. Commit to the principles. Desire in your heart that you want to be willing, generous and compassionate. Then as God frees you up from your financial mistakes, use the 10% commitment as a goal. Take every chance you have to increase your giving amount–not because you have to–but because you are now controlled by a nature that is Christ-like, not self-centered.

C. What a "tithe" means

Finally, let me say a word to those of you who are already tithing. The word TITHE in the Old Testament literally means a tenth. But as God applies that term to Israel's giving, the literal meaning is sometimes changed. There are times when tithe means more than 10%. In these instances, it means giving what God requires of you.

In several instances in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God asks Israel to give three tithes of what they had. First there was the tithe of 10%, then there was the tithe of 10% of the remaining 90%, then there was a tithe of the remaining 81%. If you figure it all out, on certain years, God asked the children of Israel to tithe 27% of their income to Him.

The point is this...don't make your giving a thing of keeping a law. When your heart is willing, generous and compassionate, 10% may not be enough, of what God wants you to give. I can't tell you even if 27% is enough for you to give. Because your giving to God must not be out of obligation or law–the kind of giving God wants, is giving that flows out of a heart filled with willingness, compassion and generosity.

VI. Conclusion

Let me go back to my original illustration of the wife, the husband, the chair and the telegram...
...When you think of the ministry of this church, and the fact that we are being trained and molded into an army of believers that Satan, himself has cause to fear, because we are beginning to love, accept, guide and partner to share God's Truth and to be His light in this Coachella Valley, where are you going to put the exclamation point in your stewardship?

NO! Price Too High; or No Price Too High!

Now, the ball is in your court. The decision is yours. Will you choose to have your heart filled with willingness, generosity and compassion? Or will you choose something that isn't taught in God's Word?

Let me remind you..."Jesus invited us, not to a picnic, but to a pilgrimage; not to a frolic, but to a fight. He offered us, not an excursion, but an execution. Our Savior said that we would have to be ready to die to self, sin, and the world." Are you ready?

Amen!