Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: If you go to a church and you think, "Oh gosh, here comes the offering plate again or the basket or something. I've got to give some money to God." You missed it. God might use your money. The tragedy of that is it's not for love, it's just money.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are.

Richard's unique style checks all the boxes with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor. Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "For Love or Money". Let me read you four little stories I found. These are not in any way connected except the topic today. A little girl became restless as the preacher's sermon dragged on and on. Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, "Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?"

Three boys are in a schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, "My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50." The second boy says, "That's nothing. My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100." The third boy says, "I got you both beat. My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight people to collect all the money."

Three ministers were discussing what they do with the money they receive in the collection plate. The first one said, "Well, I draw a line on the floor, throw all the money in the air, and whatever lands north of the line I give to God, the rest I keep." The second one said, "I do pretty much the same thing. I draw a circle, throw all the money in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle I give to God, whatever lands outside I keep." The third one says, "Well, I do the same sort of thing too. I throw all the money up in the air, and whatever God grabs, He gets."

After the church service, a little boy told the pastor, "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "But why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had." I'm not crazy about talking about money, and I'm going to take a little bit different twist on this today.

This is not to milk you for money, but to try to explain to you some of the reasons. If you give, why do you give, and where does it go? Is it just something we made up, or are we throwing money up in the air and wherever it lands kind of thing, or is there any structure to this? I think sometimes people just don't know.

They say, "Well, I give some money over here and some money over there, and where does it go, and why do I give it, and how is this determined? I think I'm feeding some people and I give money to the lady on the corner, so I think that's it, isn't it? That's how it works." If you are here, clearly you're at a gathering of a church.

Whether you're a part of this church or not, there are churches that resort to all kind of wild stuff trying to support just what goes on in the church. Paul addresses this flat out in 1 Corinthians chapter nine. But I'll tell you this before we even get into it about Paul. Paul would rarely, if almost never, take remuneration for what he did.

He was a missionary and one of his deals, he and Barnabas, but at least Paul specifically, one of his deals was he felt very uncomfortable taking money. He didn't want anybody saying to him, "You're in it for the money. You're just in it for filthy lucre," as the King James describes it. So he said, "You know what? You're not going to hold that over my head. I can take it or leave it."

I've said this in the past, and I'm not just saying this for fun. I spent ten years in the business world. I could go out today and make a living. I do not do what I do for cash. If I felt for one second that somebody thought he's just in it for the money, you can have the money. If the economy goes to hell, everything falls completely apart, and I have to go back paving roads, I've done that. I'll shovel asphalt, rake asphalt, whatever I have to do. You are not going to tell me this is about money. This is my life. It's not a job.

When you have that perspective, we'll see that in the passage that Paul talks about that. Paul chose that route for a specifically reason to the people that he went to, but he says to them, and it's a really odd thing sometimes. We have budgets and we have salaries and things get paid around here, and you say, "Isn't it kind of awkward to talk about yourself and why people give and where it goes?" Yes, it is. But it's more awkward to me to not talk about the scriptures and to be very specific and help you understand why we do what we do.

Let's start with 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse one. Paul says, and he's writing to this church in Corinth, "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?"

Look at some of these analogies he gives. Who ever goes to war at his own expense? We draft men into the military, but we don't say, "Well, you're an American, you ought to be honored to do this. We're not going to pay you." They clearly get paid. Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? It would seem absurd to plant grapes and then say we're not supposed to eat them. You're part of the process. Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

Do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." If you see the picture of this, when grain would come in the threshing floor, they'd get an ox and it would walk around, and the feet of the ox would break up the grain from the chaff, the wheat from the chaff, and then they'd separate that out. But the implication here is you would not take an ox and put him on the threshing floor and not allow him to walk around and eat some of that grain as a part of the process.

Is it oxen God is concerned about? Paul says, "Do you think it's just oxen that He's talking about in the Old Testament when Moses talks of this? It's more than that." Verse ten: "Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?"

Flat out what he's saying is there are people, the IRS gets some of your money, your health insurance gets some of your money, your kids in college get some of that money. He says there's plenty of categories in your life where it goes. He says if someone is ministering to you spiritually, then shouldn't they also be partakers in a material sense as well?

Verse twelve again: "If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?" Let me jump back over to use this Moses example and what was going on in the Old Testament. Go over to Numbers chapter 18, the process that unfolds. In verse eight and following, the Lord spoke to Aaron, and he's over all this, "Here, I myself have also given you charge of my heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel. I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an ordinance forever."

"This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering, and every sin offering, and every trespass offering which they render to me shall be most holy for you and your sons. In a most holy place you shall eat it. Every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you." The context here of all these heave offerings, I'm not going to go and explain all that. Bottom line, the people of Israel would come to this temple and they would come to worship and they would bring sacrifices. They would bring gifts, basically, to God.

How in the world did the temple workers, the Levites, get taken care of? You'll see here in a minute. "This also is yours: the heave offering of their gift with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it. All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you."

I'll briefly say here in verse 12, these people were taught and understood that the firstfruits went to God. You raised grapes, you had a vineyard, whatever your deal was, or you had sheep or any kind of wheat. Let's say you had a field of wheat and you harvest that wheat. What they would do is grab the entire harvest and according to this, they would take a percentage, maybe it was a tenth of that harvest, and the first percentage of it would go straight to the temple and would be given over as an offering to God in a worshipful sense.

Bringing this forward to today, if you go to a church and you think, "Oh gosh, here comes the offering plate again or the basket or something. I've got to give some money to God." You missed it. God might use your money. The tragedy of that is it's not for love, it's just money. It's no expression of anything.

I'm going to encourage you in this process as you grow in your faith or you're discovering something about God, that literally you give yourself to God. It's not waking up every day and going, "All right, what do you want today? Where are we going today? What are you going to make me do today? Who have I got to talk to today? Let's get this over with so I can live my life the rest of the day."

It's a "God, what do you have for me today? I belong to you, all that I am, all that I have, it's yours. I want to serve you, I want to worship you with my very life." Everything about your life, your time, even your money, you come before God and you say, "God, this is going to hurt. I'd rather keep this money, but you know what? It's not mine. This is what I was supposed to drop off firstfruits, whatever, and here it is."

Keep reading with me here. He talks about these firstfruits then, the best oil, the best new wine, their firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, "I have given them to you." And he's talking to Aaron. "Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours."

"Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem. They are holy."

"You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by a fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. And their flesh shall be yours, just as the wave breast and the right thigh are yours. All the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you."

Then the Lord said to Aaron, "You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them." Look at the next phrase. God, speaking to Aaron through Moses, said, "You're not going to get an inheritance. You're not going to have land to hold and say this is mine, part of the promised land. You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. You get me."

Verse 21: "Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting." God told Moses to tell Aaron and everybody understood it. These guys are going to work the temple, they get no inheritance in the land, so you're going to gather whatever you produce from your produce or your livestock, you're going to bring it. The way the Levites, again in the Old Testament here, are going to stay alive and take care of their families is that God is going to be their portion and that He is going to provide for them through a percentage of all that is brought in.

Verse 22: "Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levite shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance."

Look at verse 25 and following. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak thus to the Levites and say to them, when you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe." Do you see what happens here? What He says to the Levites is, "Okay, great. I'm going to take care of you through a tenth of what's brought. But when you get whatever you get from the people, you are then to take a tenth of the tenth and give that."

In other words, they got to tithe, too, like everybody else. They didn't get left out. I personally have payroll deduction and in my case, I specifically say take 10% out. It doesn't limit me. It's not that I can't write more checks and help people beyond that, but you are not robbing me of an opportunity to give back of what I've received. You say, "Well, the church is paying you, why do you want to give back to the church that just paid you?" Because it's an act of worship for me too.

It's saying, "God, you've taken care of me, and without these people and without this particular job as it were, you provide for me, but I don't want to get left out. I got to have a way to express gratitude back to you as well and be involved in the process." Moses spoke to these Levites and said, "You shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe. And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress."

In other words, you don't get to thresh wheat or raise grapes and have wine to offer or wheat to offer, but it is like you did have that to offer back to God in the way that these people who work bring it. Verse 28: "Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord's heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. Of all of your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from the best of them, the consecrated part of them."

"Therefore you shall say to them, when you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. You may eat it in any place, you and your household, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die."

It's simple, guys. This is not rocket science, and I almost feel foolish sometimes going over this stuff, but I think it's important. We are a young church. We have people who are not believers or new believers and they just say, "Well, I don't get it. When you give money to a local church, where is it going?"

Right now, and I wish I had some graphs to show you this, but in any church, you should not be overstaffed, necessarily, but in a process trying to put people in place like we do here. We've got youth, we've got children, we've got music, we've got discipleship. But we don't have to grow our staff to the rate that we grow as a people. A certain number of people can manage a large group of people.

In order to reach people, for instance, we have families who show up here. Families show up here with some teenagers and they say, "You know what? I believe in what you're doing. You're trying to be multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-economic. Man, we believe in this. But what are you going to do for my kids? Is there any kind of youth program? I'm not sacrificing my kids just to come to this church."

So you put things in place. But my prayer is as we continue to grow, there's more people, there's more funds that come in, that percentage-wise, it is a fraction of the total that comes in that goes to salaries or facilities, and the bulk of it goes to reach the neighborhood, that goes to do missions here and beyond this place. There are churches out there and denominations are kind of almost other religions that say, "Oh, you know, you shouldn't receive any money, and the preachers should not be paid, that staff members on a church staff should not be paid."

Then what are you going to do with this passage in the Old Testament? And if you say, "Well, that's the Old Testament," I say, "Then what are you going to do with the passage in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 9, and there's some others I'll read here in just a little bit." Go back over with me to 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse eight.

"Do I say these things as a mere man, or does the law say the same thing also? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God is concerned about, or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, that it is written, that he who plows should plow in hope and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?" Obviously the answer is no. "If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?"

If you ask anybody who knows me at all, I don't like this kind of stuff. I'm not comfortable talking about money, but let me tell you what I am comfortable about talking about: the Book. If you come to this church, and we know what the scripture says, and when you're questioning, "Well, if I write a check or if I'm supportive, if I believe in what this church is doing," you know what? You need to get in the game, you need to support it then.

The problem with me not addressing this at some point along the way is that you pay. Where I'm going to be in a heap of trouble is down the road. If you're financially upside down all the time and something's wrong in your home and in your finances, and you come back ten years later and you went to some other church or listen on the radio or TV and got some truth and you found some principles, you went, "Oh my gosh, this is what's wrong."

And you started giving and all of a sudden things turned around. There are principles of sowing and reaping. Then you say, "God, I missed it. Why didn't my pastor care enough about us to step up the plate and say something? And I've suffered all this time because nobody would help me." There are people in this room, I can line them up, that I know for a fact get this.

They give consistently, and they have never been able to out-give God. God blesses their business, God blesses their finances, stuff happens that are unexplainable. But there are other people who are terrified by this truth and think if I give this money up. You'd be as terrified to do this as a farmer would be to take a sack full of seed and walk through a field and dig little holes and take all his seed and bury it and look at it and go, "What a stupid thing I just did," unless he had done it time after time and seen that one little seed turns into a stalk of corn with more seed on it.

That is the principle. You got to bury it, you got to lose it, you got to give it away. Luke chapter 10, verse one, Jesus sends the seventy out, sends them out two by two before His face into every city, verse one and following, "and every city and place where He Himself was about to go." So they're an advance team.

Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack nor sandals, and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If no, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages."

Galatians 6, verse 6: "Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches." It's just part of the process. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 1: "Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know your willingness about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago and your zeal has stirred up the majority."

"Yet I have sent the brethren lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, should be ashamed of this confident boasting." In other words, he says, "I know I'm coming, you know the need, the money that needs to be collected, but I'm sending some people so it's together so when we show up if it's not there nobody's embarrassed, it's already a done deal."

"Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation." Now listen to me. I'm not saying we won't take your money and use your money if you give it grudgingly. But if you give it willingly and cheerfully, as we'll read in a minute, it changes the whole experience if it's literally an act of worship.

Sometimes we get to the end of the service and I finish preaching and you think it's over. Let me tell you something, until the last prayer it ain't over. Do not walk on that. It is a huge part. You're expressing to God, "God, all that I have is yours, and I'm giving you a piece of it to acknowledge my trust in you." It's an act of worship. I got no grapes, I got no wheat, I got no wine, maybe some in the car, but none in here. This is all I got, God.

Look at verse six: "But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver." Now you say, "Well, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I believe. You keep throwing out this 10% thing from the Old Testament, oh this, I'm just giving as God leads me."

This is about a particular offering to a particular group of people who were impoverished. This is a one-time deal. Paul says, "Whatever you feel led to give on this." You clear whatever God tells you to give, 10, 20, 30 percent. I don't know. I know people that give 90% of what they make and keep ten to live on.

They keep trying to out-give God and they can't do it. I'm talking about above and beyond supporting the local church when a need arises and we literally, let's say we heard of a church in Jerusalem of believers who were struggling, and I got up or somebody got up and said there's a need and we said, "Okay, let's pray about this and let's give not grudgingly but cheerfully to this cause." That's what Paul's encouraging here.

Guest (Male): Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up today's talk. But first, I want to share a couple thoughts with you. Let's be honest. Real life isn't about living some highlight reel for others to see. Most people have deep hurts, questions, and struggles. We get it and want to help you in any way we can.

So let's keep this conversation going. Give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD or connect with us at our website, richardellis.com. You can even put in your prayer request right there on the prayer wall so others can pray for you as well. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD or online at richardellis.com. And now, let's get back to Richard with a final word on today's show.

Richard Ellis: God loves a cheerful giver. Then verse eight, he says, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." You give out of love to God, not for money though.

It's not a slot machine. It's not, "Okay God, I get it now. I'm going to get rich. Here's my way to get rich. I'm going to give to God, He's got to give back to me. That's just the deal." That's not worship, that's not godly. It's coming with your heart and saying, "Father, I do get it. I do trust this local church. And if I don't, I'm going to another one."

I'm going to get in a place where I can get this principle going and let you bless me, not so I can get rich, but so I can be a steward of what you have given me. It's all yours anyway, and you can tell me beyond even the local church what to give to when needs arise. Now go back over to 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 16.

"For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." I could no more not be a preacher and do what I do for money or not, you might as well just shoot me. If you told me that I could not preach anymore and be a pastor anymore, I really don't know what I'd do. I know that God could do something.

But woe is me if I don't do this. It is not for money, it is for love. You give it from your heart to God as an act of worship and acknowledgment of your trust in Him and knowing that He is going to take care of you and nobody else. For love or money, it's for love I pray.

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