90 Day Giving Challenge

Tonight, I preached on the topic of money and stewardship and its connection to our relationship with God as well as the rest of the world. While this is a topic often misunderstood and very personal, the Bible has a lot to say about it. When it comes to this topic and others like it, this is another reminder of why I like preaching through books of the Bible. It forces us to look at topics we normally wouldn’t look at.

One of the things I have come to see in my own life and in the lives of others is the deep connection between our money, how we use it and God. I believe that God works through people who are generous with their stuff, time and money. For a few reasons:

1. It gives God a chance to show His power.
2. It shows God that we in fact trust Him.
3. Generosity is the pathway to freedom.
4. Generosity is evidence of a changed life.

While I don’t believe the Bible lays out a specific amount that we are to give (here is a great article that I pulled a lot of information from for tonight). I know many pastors point to 10% as the tithe, but the tithe in the Old Testament was actually closer to 22%. In the New Testament we are given principles when it comes to giving. They are:

1. We should give.
2. It needs to be systematic. We need to decide how often we will give.
3. It needs to be generous and sacrificial. It should cost something. (Not giving will cost us something, but you’ll have to listen to my talk to here that part)
4. It needs to be proportional.
5. It needs to be intentional.

For Katie and I, we started at 10%. It was a round number, which helps. But when we began, it was sacrificial. As we have gotten older, God has blessed us with more, our giving has changed. I’ll post later about what that is.

So, tonight, as I preached through Nehemiah 12:44 – 47 and looked at this new church and how they worshiped through their finances, I laid out what we call the 90 day giving challenge.

Here is how it works. If you are not giving, start. If you are giving a little, move to greater generosity.

We don’t lay out a specific amount. Just look at the 5 principles above. For the next 90, give back to God through Revolution. If you feel at the end of those 90 days that it was a waste of time, you didn’t see God move in your life, you didn’t see God stay true to Scripture. Just tell us and we will give you the money back.

It is that simple.

We closed tonight with a story of someone who did this the last time.