Pastor David's Giving Challenge

Pastor David’s Challenge

A few years ago, Pam & I decided to change our lifestyle so that our budget would be oriented toward giving rather than spending. We downsized our home, eliminated some hobbies and made other changes that freed up our income. The end result was a greater level of giving than we ever thought possible. As always, Jesus is right when he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) As you contemplate your own growth in giving during Live Boldly, consider the following steps.

If you’ve never given to your church before, making a first time gift is an obvious place to start. Say you give occasionally- set a goal to give consistently.

Ready for another step? The Bible talks frequently about giving of your first fruits. That’s farmer-speak for giving the first dollars from each paycheck. Think of the impact you could have if you started giving electronically each payday!

How about setting a goal to give 10% of your income by the end of Live Boldly. Imagine the influence on your own children as they watch you rearrange your priorities to make tithing a reality in your home.
Maybe you’ve experienced a financial windfall. It could be a modest amount like a favorable tax refund or a large amount like an inheritance. Think of the influence those resources might have both here in Tallahassee and around the world.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Celebration Baptist Church's Live Boldly Podcast. My name is Jessica, and today I am joined by Pastor David as we conclude our 21 Days of Living Boldly. This week we've been talking about giving. You've been very open, Pastor David, throughout the years about your own giving journey. Would you walk us through your personal outlook on giving?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Oh, absolutely. I grew up in church life, okay? So I'm that guy that was in church nine months before he was ever born. That was absolutely me. And so throughout my lifetime, I remember uh always being taught about the importance of giving in church. It was just something that I was raised with. When I married, Pam and I made that a priority all throughout our marriage and you know, tried to be givers, tried to stay focused on that. When I became a pastor here at Celebration, tried to keep giving as an important part of my life. We really worked hard to tithe and do those kinds of things that we felt like we should be doing. But a couple of years ago, uh actually I spent a little bit longer than that, about five years or so ago, um, I had to confront a reality, and that was that giving for me wasn't necessarily a lot of fun. It was a lot of work. Yep. And I thought, man, this is not right. It's not a good thing for giving to be this much work. And so I began to really ask myself the questions, what was going on? And one of the main reasons it was work was because I had I had not allowed any real margin in my life financially. So we had a larger home, we had a lot of expenses. And so when I would give, it it just kind of blew a hole in my budget. And we were making it, but it just wasn't fun. And I grew to really kind of dread, you know, tithing. And I thought something's got to change because this is not why God has invited me to give faithfully. He's not done this to be a burden on me, he's done this to be a blessing to me. So if that's the case, then I'm doing something wrong. Yeah. So we we started really taking a look at the way our monies were allocated, and we started looking at our spending, and we had to kind of confess well, you know, we have an awful lot of house, we have a lot of other things that we're doing, some other involvements that are, you know, consuming so much of our money that by the, you know, that when we think about giving, that's upside down, you know, and it shouldn't be that way. So we ultimately downsized our home, we cut our mortgage by about 40%, cut our home size by about 40%, made some other lifestyle changes to free up even more resources, and suddenly tithing wasn't that hard to do. You know, how about that? And so now it becomes something that I can actually enjoy. And then we began to take up the mantle of saying, well, you know, actually, if you look at the details of the Old Testament, the actual total amount of giving was closer to 23%, not 10. Tithe is the part that gets the gets the kind of the limelight, but the tithe was only a part of a bigger giving picture. And so we began to ask ourselves, well, what would that be like? What would it be like to give it 23%? And I was like blown away. I thought, there's no way I could get 23% of my money. I've got other things going on. But then I began to take that up as a bit of a challenge. I thought, well, what if I could work toward 23%? Say, say if I were to say, well, you know, the last year that I work, I hope to work until I'm 70. The last year that I work, can I give 23% that year? My home would be paid off by that point. You know, I kind of won't have any kids in college, all that good stuff. And it hit me, oh well, I could do that if I began to do some things today that were a little bit different. And so we started chipping away on that. We've seen our giving ease up little by little by little by little by little. And we're now giving well more than 10%. And I'm looking forward to seeing that journey continue. And it's a joy, it's the way that God intended it to be.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

That's awesome. So the Bible talks about giving your first fruits. What does that mean exactly? And how do we apply that to our lives today?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So the principal principle of first fruits is kind of the reverse of where I was in my own giving journey. Okay, I was paying all my bills and looking at what was left over and then kind of shedding the tears, I'd write my tithe check. First fruit's the opposite of that. First fruit says, I'm so confident that God's gonna provide for me, that the first harvest, and you know, this this comes from an agricultural mindset, the first things that I harvest, I'm gonna give of that. Trusting that there's gonna be more in the harvest, and that that's gonna be enough for me. So it was a statement of confidence and faith from the giver to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

There you go. So 2020 was a pretty tough year though, and especially for a lot of people financially. So, what would you say in regards to giving for your family that may be dealing with some financial uncertainty right now?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

I would say this first, huge lesson about giving that I had to learn years ago. Don't worry about what you cannot do. Worry about what you can do. Yeah. And, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with people who've said, David, I used to be able to give this, and I've had gone through this financial reversal, and now I can give nothing because I have no income. And I would tell them, well, you know what, 10% of zero is zero. You know, don't worry about that right now. You've got other issues, you've got other things you need to worry about. So go worry about those things. You know, God is faithful. He's gonna bring you back to the season of restoration. You're gonna be okay, but don't worry about that right now. And I think that's what I would say to families uh during 2020. It would be, you know, if this has been a tough year for you financially, don't worry about what you cannot do. Ask yourself, well, what can I do? What's the right step for me this year? I mentioned that you know, we're looking at you know, this kind of long-term goal of being able to hit 23% in our giving. But I recognize that's not just an arrow shot up into the right. You know, there's gonna be some contour along the way, and I have to be comfortable with that contour if I'm ever gonna hit that goal. And because who knows? Who knows what may happen next year. You know, we we may go through, as a family, we may go through a season of financial reversal and setback, and that goal may have to really be scaled back. That's okay. You know, it's it's really about well, Lord, I'm gonna be faithful with whatever you've given me. So, you know, what's the step that you can take?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

That's a fantastic perspective to have. So, this is our very last day of the podcast. Let's do a little bit of recap. How can taking steps of discipleship, steps of serving, and steps of giving impact somebody's life?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Well, I one of the things I love about what we do with Goal Sunday and with this whole process is we've laid out to everybody just take a step in your discipleship, in your serving, in your giving. And the reason we say that is because if you're taking steps in all of those areas, and if you're doing that consistently and intentionally, that's growth. Yeah. You know, that's growth. And so if I'm growing in my discipleship, if I'm getting to know God better, that's growth. If I'm serving more like Christ, that's growth. If I'm becoming a more generous person and relying on God all the more to meet my needs, that's growth. And so I would say to our church, hey, if we all take this process seriously, every couple of years, just reminding ourselves, okay, I've got to be intentional. I need to be growing, I need to be about this. Imagine where we are, you know, two years, four years, six years, eight years, ten years down the line. You look back and you go, man, I have come so far by God's grace and what I know about him and how I feel about him and who I am in him. So take this as an opportunity to grow in who you are in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

That's some exciting stuff. Pastor David, thank you for encouraging us over the last 21 days as we begin to take steps to live boldly. So, all of our listeners, don't forget to find Celebration Baptist Church on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. That way you can keep up with what is continuing to happen in our church family. Pastor David, would you pray for us today?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Absolutely. Well, Lord, uh, we're very close to the time where we're going to be making a goal, setting a goal about how we're going to take steps in our spiritual life and how we uh and how we pursue you in our discipleship, in our serving and giving. So I just ask, dear Lord, that as a church you guide us, lead us, help us to make the right call, help us to take bold steps in our faith toward you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Amen. Thank you, Pastor David. And thank you to all of our listeners who have joined us over the past 21 days. Continue to keep up with us on social media and in person as we all take steps to live boldly.