Level: 2, Lesson: 15
FINANCES II
OUTLINE

Luke 6:38: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Giving is what releases God’s abundance in your life. When you start giving financially, God gets involved in your finances.

Proverbs 11:24: "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." As you begin to give, God gives back to you.

Malachi 3:10: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." God doesn’t look at the dollar amount of your giving, but rather the percentage. Therefore, every person has something to give.

Luke 16:11: "If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" God wants you to trust Him in every area of your life. One of the main reasons He has set up the principle of giving is that He wants to get you to trust Him. It takes faith to believe God’s promise that when you give, He will bless you. If you can’t trust God with your finances, how can you trust Him with your eternal destiny.

I Kings 17:13-15: "And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. 15And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days."

When you put God first, taking a step in giving, He’ll take care of your needs. When you give with the right attitude, that money never leaves your life, but enters your future where it grows and multiplies.

When you honor God with the first fruits of your increase, God’s prosperity will manifest in your life, not just for you, but so that you can be a blessing. Believe it’s God’s will for you to prosper and trust God by giving.

FINANCES II
Lesson Text

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" -- John 3:16. This very familiar passage of scripture summarizes God’s love for us and also gives us some great insight into giving.

The first thing that we should consider is that God loved us so much that He gave. The motive behind God’s greatest gift was love. The proper foundation for any gift must be this godly kind of love. The Lord didn’t just pity us. He didn’t just feel obligated to us as our Creator. He didn’t give Jesus out of guilt or desperation or any other motivation. He loved us with all of His heart and that is what moved Him to action.

Likewise, the motivation behind our giving must be love for God. Much of the time, people are motivated out of pity, guilt or debt, but that’s not right. Paul said in I Corinthians 13:3, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." The motivation behind our gift is more important to God than the gift. Pure love for God must be the foundation of all giving that pleases God. Absence of love as the motivating force behind our giving causes us to profit nothing from our gifts.

Second, giving is something God did. It is an action. It wouldn’t have profited us anything if the Lord felt love for us but did nothing about it. God’s love compelled Him to act. True love for God and love for others will make us act too. Those who say they love God and yet don’t give are deceiving themselves. Faith without works is dead and love without action is dead too. What does it profit if we tell someone to be clothed and fed and yet don’t give to meet those needs? (James 2:15-16) Our good intentions are not a substitute for giving. The notion that "God knows my heart and He knows I want to give" is meaningless. That doesn’t minister to God any more than it ministers to the needy when someone just wishes them the best. There must be action.

Third, why did God give? He gave because He was motivated out of love for us, not love for Himself. But does that mean He didn’t expect to receive anything in return for His giving? No! Titus 2:14 says, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The Lord had two purposes in His giving. He wanted to set us free and He wanted us to come into relationship with Him.

Many people have missed the real point of John 3:16. They believed that Jesus’ only purpose for coming to this earth and dying for us was to forgive our sins and keep us from perishing. But that’s not it. God’s primary purpose was to bring us into relationship with Himself and it just so happened that sin was a barrier that blocked that relationship. So, Jesus did die for our sins, but He had a greater goal than just keeping us out of hell. He wanted something in return. He wanted us, our love and fellowship. He gave expecting to receive.

Therefore, it is not wrong for us to expect to receive when we give. It should not be the primary motive, but it would not be like God to expect nothing in return. A farmer expects to reap what he sows and believers should expect to receive increase from the seeds of giving that they sow.

Our Lord used the expected return on His giving as a motivation that allowed Him to look beyond the sacrifice of the cross to the prize that would be won (Hebrews 12:2). We need to recognize that when we give, that money doesn’t leave our life but it enters into our future where it grows and multiplies. There is a reward coming for our giving. Knowing this will make us the cheerful givers that God loves (II Corinthians 9:7).

Fourth, how much did God the Father give? He gave His very best. He gave all that He had. He didn’t play it safe in His giving. He gave to such a degree that if what He was believing for did not come to pass, He would have been devastated.

In the same way, we need to give sacrificially enough that it puts us at risk. Those who only give what they can afford aren’t using any faith. We need to give with wisdom; but to the degree that, if God doesn’t come through, we are in trouble. Godly giving is a step of faith. Anyone who says, "I want to give but I can’t" is missing the fact that godly giving takes faith.

God gave us His only begotten Son. He didn’t have anyone else in reserve. The world was unworthy of His gift and yet He gave because of His great love. If God gave so much for us, how can we possibly give less than our best?

Fifth, whom did God love? He loved the whole world. He didn’t give His Son just for those He knew would accept Him. Jesus died for the sins of everyone, even those

Who rejected Him (I John 2:1-2). God was aggressive in His giving. We need to be aggressive in our giving knowing that there are still millions of people who have not heard the good news and there are millions of others who may have heard, but the message has been muted by religion. We have to be aggressive in our presentation of the gospel and it takes money to do that (Romans 10:15).

Therefore, if we want to be godly in our giving, we must learn to give like God. Giving the Lord a pittance is like giving a small tip when it is within our power to pay the full price. That is not sufficient and it is actually an insult.

If we truly appreciate what He has done for us, there will be no grief as we give back to Him. Sharing our finances for the advancement of the gospel is the least we can do.

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" (II Corinthians 9:15).

FINANCES II
(Additional Information)

True Prosperity is not selfish or greedy

The proper motivation for prosperity is so that we can be a blessing to others. Those who resist prosperity are the ones who are selfish. Those who say, "I have enough, I would never ask God for anything more," are only thinking of themselves. That is not what prosperity is all about. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, "But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for [it is] he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as [it is] this day." God gives us the power to prosper financially so that we can use that prosperity to further His kingdom here on earth.

A good biblical definition of prosperity is found in II Corinthians 9:8 which says, "And God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all [things], may abound to every good work." Prosperity is having enough of God’s supply to accomplish God’s instructions. Those who feel they couldn’t use any more money have only a selfish vision. Their needs may be met but what about a lost and dying world? Those with an unselfish vision are believing for more prosperity so that they can give to every good work. It takes money to preach the gospel. For the gospel to prosper, we have to prosper. The money comes to us first so that we can in turn fund the ministry.

The Bible does teach against greed and covetousness which is called idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Some have used this to say that having large amounts of money is evil. But having money isn’t evil; it is the love of money that is the root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10). It is possible to have money without it having you. And you don’t have to be rich to commit this sin of loving money. In fact, some of the people who lust for wealth the most are the ones who are poor. They think if they had more money and what it could buy, they would be happy. The rich know that isn’t true.

It's Greed That Rots the Seed

If our motive for prosperity is not so we can consume the money on ourselves, then the Lord will give us an abundance of finances so we can sow them into His kingdom. If He can get the money through you, He will get it to you. Paul said God gives seed to the sowers (II Corinthians 9:10). This is talking of money. He was saying, "If you will be faithful to give, God will supply you with the money to do it." Therefore, if we are short on seed, it’s probably because we are not very good sowers. Sowers have seed. That’s God’s promise.

Those who say, "I would love to give if I had any extra" are missing the whole spirit of giving. We should live to give, not give to live. Our number one financial priority should be giving. If we could have that attitude from our heart, our finances would be blessed.

I can just hear someone saying, "That will not work. My focus has to be on meeting my needs and then I give out of what is left." That’s not what Jesus taught. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." What things was Jesus talking about? We don’t have to wonder. The answer is right there in the context. Jesus was speaking of our physical needs being met if we would seek first the kingdom of God.

He wasn’t speaking of seeking first the kingdom of God through prayer or Bible study. He was saying that if our reason for desiring prosperity is so we can advance the kingdom of God, then the Lord will see that all our temporal needs are met. That’s what the context of this verse teaches.

The Lord established a system which enables us to devote our whole heart to Him and His kingdom. We don’t have to departmentalize our lives into the secular and religious. We can make our whole purpose of life to glorify God. In the financial realm, we can make our real heart’s cry, "I want more so that I can give more." When a person seeks first the kingdom of God in that way, then the Lord personally sees to his needs being met. We don’t have to be concerned with our own needs. And the Lord will take care of us better than we would have taken care of ourselves.

The reason for this is because, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). It would have been wonderful if he had said, "Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also." But that’s not what He said. That’s the opposite of the way it really is. Our hearts gravitate towards where we place our treasure. Not the other way around. Therefore, we have to commit to using our resources for the kingdom first, then our needs will follow.

In verses 22-24, this is explained further by saying that we cannot truly be focused on more than one thing at a time. We can not be working to meet our needs and working to advance the kingdom of God at the same time. We will gravitate towards one or the other (Matthew 6:22-24).

So, this raises a problem. We have to have our needs met. If that is not to be our focus, then how will we survive? Jesus gives the answer in versus 25-33. The key is that if we will make our primary concern using our finances to advance God’s kingdom, then He will supply all our needs. If we take care of Him, He will take care of us.

Someone may be saying, "What about Hebrews 13:5? It says, ‘[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ Doesn’t this verse teach we are supposed to have nothing?" NO! This verse is teaching against covetousness. We should be content with what we have, but as we start living to give, abundance will come our way and we should be content with that too.

Jesus said in Mark 10:29-30 that any person who gives to Him out of the right motive would receive a hundredfold return IN THIS LIFE. That’s a promise. We don’t give to get, but we realize as we give, we will get so we can give even more. And as the money flows through, there will always be plenty for you. The Lord will meet your needs. He is El Shaddai, the All sufficient one—not El Cheapo, the Stingy One.

"Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant" (Psalms 35:27).

Here are some questions to think about for this lesson

Level 2 Lesson 15 Questions
FINANCES II

1. God’s motivation for giving to us is what? (John 3:16)
2. According to I Corinthians 13:3, the motivation behind our giving must be what?
3. Explain the meaning of James 2:15-16.
4. Is it wrong for us to expect to receive when we give?
5. What is Luke 6:38 saying to you?
6. According to Ephesians 1:7, did God give out of His riches or according to His riches? (Explain the difference.)
7. How should we give unto God?

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