God increases people’s wealth for His purposes. First Chronicles 29 tells the story of David giving to the temple. Scripture tells us there was a major fund-raising dinner that night. A friend of mine from Dallas told me that he calculated the value of the gold and the silver: $35 billion dollars was given in one night’s fund-raising banquet for the temple. We think $1 million is a lot or $10 million—no, $35 billion dollars was given to the Lord.

God allowed those individuals to be very successful in the marketplace of their day, conquering, winning, doing all kinds of things. He gave them wealth, but ultimately He gave it for godly purposes. This applies even to women and children of the Old Testament because ultimately wealth will be in the hands of women and children as men pass off the scene. In Exodus 3:21-22, God says,

And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.

The best fund-raisers of the day were women talking to other women. That wealth was literally put on their children (Exodus 3 and 11). Do you know why God did that? He commanded them to do this because He wanted to build a tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 35 and 36). When God said it was time to take an offering, the wealth was all there, particularly in the hands of the women and upon the children, wealth that was transferred into the kingdom of God. God gave divine provision because He had something He wanted to do later. I challenge you to realize that if God has blessed you, there is most likely something He is going to want to do through you, through your wife or through your children.

The state of stewardship in America: What is going on? In 1899 a bibliography was compiled on books about tithing and systematic proportionate giving. There were 500 books on that subject. If you search any online book retailer today, how many books do you think you would come up with? We live a 100 years later in a generation of untold wealth, and yet very few people are speaking to the issue of generosity. That is why Ron Blue wrote his book Generous Living: Finding Contentment through Giving to begin to speak into that issue, but there are so many voices speaking so many different things.

One-hundred years ago it was just assumed it was normal; it was part of the culture; it was part of the Christian context. Today that is not the case. So, what is going on? What are the implications of the silence? Among Christians, the whole concept of stewardship is giving 10 percent or more of one’s income to the Lord’s work. I personally am a believer in the concept of 10 percent or more, but the reality is that even this is not happening in America. Christian financial counselor Larry Burkett’s estimate is that only about 5 percent of Christians actively give 10 percent or more to God’s work. Researcher George Barna has concluded that although 17 percent of Christians say they tithe, only 3 percent actually do. Thus, 97 percent of Christians today in America fail to give. It is not known, it is not understood, it is not practiced, it is not really happening.

I remember teaching an adult class at my church and commenting, “As a Christian you need to make a high financial priority to give to God first.” One guy responded, “Come on, get real.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Hey, we’ve got bills, we’ve got kids, we’ve got things to do. You cannot do that in this day and age. It is absolutely impossible.” We looked up some verses together, and I said, “It is always possible, because God is always real.” After we talked about it more, later that night he called me on the phone and said, “Brian, are you trying to tell me to give to God first, and you are saying to give at least 10 percent or more?” I said, “Yeah, I really am.” He responded, “I don’t have the courage to do that. I just can’t do that.” I said, “I understand that, Bob, but know that it is something that God would desire for His people.” He finally said, “OK, I’ll start doing this under one condition: You have to start a tither’s support group at church. I won’t have the courage to do this. I am going to need to meet with people, believe with them, and pour out my problems to them. If you agree to start the group, I will start doing this.” I asked him if he was serious, and he told me he was, so I prayed about it and told him we would start with a group of two. “You and me?” he asked, but I said, “No, you and God.” “What does He have to do with it?” he wanted to know. I said, “Bob, everything.” “You mean to tell me, Brian, that you believe honestly that if I begin to give, somehow God will become more real?” I told him that from everything I know about God, the answer is yes. I am not saying you give to get, but that you give because you have gotten. You give because you have received. I told him he needed to start giving to the Lord.

I don’t have space here, but there are so many stories from the Bob’s life as he began to see God become real in his experience even though he had been a Christian for 15 years. It was the area of giving that moved him forward. As a practical application, I want to encourage people to make some spiritual choices about their giving. It will dramatically impact your life.

A friend of mine made a commitment to give 70 percent of his income to the Lord’s work. My wife and I started with a base of 20 percent. In order to begin, you must come up with a number of where to start, realizing that God may expand beyond that. As a young Christian I started at 10 percent, but you have to decide for yourself.

Secondly, you have to set the money aside. You cannot mix it or co-mingle it with your other funds. You need to set it up as a separate account or open up a separate checking account. I am a believer in what is happening among local Christian community foundations. Through these local foundations you can give a charitable gift which acts like a charitable bank account that gives into the future. No matter how you decide to give, though, you have to lay it aside unto God; otherwise, it may become confusing and may stick to your fingers.

The State of the American Church and Their Pastors

The State of Christian Educational Institutions and Ministries

The International State of Giving in the Church

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