Giving to God When I Can't Afford Groceries

Brad: Hey everyone, welcome to Go Mad with Doug and Brad. Doug: We're back, we're back! Brad: Jesse's with us as well once again. Jesse: Hey, hey, what's going on? Brad: Well, I'll tell you what's going on. Today we're gonna be talking about everyone's favorite topic. Money. Well, actually, money, but you're not gonna hear from us. We're not gonna answer the The tithe question today. We're not Doug: let's argue about stuff. Brad: I may provide my personal Venmo at some point if you wanna send to me, but we're not fundraising today. This is about Giving to God when I can't buy groceries, just how we look at giving and and just what God has to say about it. And what do we do when times are tight? Because guess what? Times are tight right now. Doug: Hey, no matter whether you're struggling to to make ends meet or whether you're doing just fine financially, you're gonna hear things today that are going to make sense, some practical steps maybe, some maybe some new ideas, some new thoughts maybe you haven't heard about giving. It's gonna be a good one today. Have you guys been to Walmart lately? Brad: I I have uh often actually but Doug: Why are Cheerios nine dollars? Brad: You know what? If you buy a bowl at a time, it really helps. Doug: Where can you do that? Brad: Oh you just open it Doug: No, you're not in the parking lot. Brad: No, you just open it in the aisle. Is that is that wrong? And then I scan a checkout. Doug: In view of the cameras, I think you're fine. But I mean seriously, I I uh you do a little grocery shopping, I look at our grocery bill and I'm like, should this cost as much as my mortgage payment? I should not have to choose between the two. Brad: Well, and don't throw gas into the mix. Oh my goodness. Because even seriously, for our family, just even driving to church each week I'm just like We're not gonna not go. You should not then all of a sudden it's like how much does this cost to just go anywhere? Doug: You should not have to sell plasma To buy your guest to get to church. Brad: Man, I wish we had had this episode a little while ago. Doug: Slumped over in his chair today. You know, you can f really find yourself strapped pretty. Pretty quickly with the higher cost of living now. And uh we're joking around a little bit, but it's you know, the i it's not funny when you you get to saying, look, I have a um I have a commitment to give to God and it can get a little messy when you go, I I want to be generous. But uh I get twenty days into my into the month and I'm finding myself kind of broke here. So what Do we do? Um if we were gonna do a different title, do I need to give to God when I'm broke? Brad: You know what? I actually hear the this may be shocking to you. Doug: Yeah Brad: I hear that this is actually on people's minds coming up to the election that's happening in a couple of weeks. What election? I I there's there's this little thing coming up and it really is. It is the Top concern because it's Doug: it's by far the top concern. Brad: There's a there's more going on overseas, the the you know, all the conflicts, everything else. But when you're day to day, when you when you're going, it's it's easy to see why people are like, well no, I want to care about these other things, but I gotta feed my family. Doug: We're gonna talk about giving today and um especially what you do when things are tight, but um some other things too. But uh I w I wanna start here by saying I know that Brad and I and I I assume Jesse, we've all been in this situation. We weren't born wealthy We in fact we uh Brad: still ain't Doug: Brad Brad and I um uh spent years on the mission field And making less than twenty thousand dollars a year. Brad: Oh yeah. Doug: And that was that was uh um I mean it talking ten, fifteen years ago, but um so like twenty thousand dollars then is like Twenty thousand dollars and a hundred now. Brad: You did good math. Doug: Did I do the math right on that? Doug and math. Perfect. But here's a I remember every month Going, how are we going to do this? No. What God says about giving, like, apparently it's really important to him. It is. He's i I read that fifteen percent of what Jesus said in the New Testament Pertains to money. That's more than what he said about heaven and hell combined. Why? Apparently there's a kind of a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we think about and handle money. I mean it's all his anyway. Brad: It's true. Doug: Psalm twenty four, right? Uh the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. So what you know Brad: Yeah, I love just diving into this because it's not we we've set the stage. Money's tight, and we know God cares about our giving, so let's just dive on in. Doug: Yeah, and to give you a little hint here, what we're what we're really gonna be getting to here is the heart of giving. Brad: Amen. Doug: There are pr uh you know i i no matter what you think about giving, uh at the end of the day, it's about having a transformed heart and having a heart that that is in God's direction as far as what he thinks about giving. And so what that means for us in our day-to-day. Brad: So first thing I would mention is The first fruits giving that God talks about for uh me, one of the prime examples of this. You mentioned us Growing up and everything and and not uh we didn't have a lot of money as far as our family goes. I I didn't feel that Use it because mom and dad were making sure we got fed. They found a way to give back to God. Doug: And we're always praising. Brad: Even when they couldn't afford groceries. Exactly. And So but what I do remember is they didn't talk a lot about their giving because that was between them and the Lord, but they did make clear that they gave from the first fruits. It wasn't about this uh well let's see what we have left at the end of the month. Maybe we'll Doug: maybe I'll give you something, Lord. Maybe I won't. Brad: Yeah, but they had a set amount that hey we're gonna give this each month. And we're gonna trust God to provide. And we're gonna get into that, the trusting aspect. But uh when when it's not about the It's not about the law in this. Uh there God does say he does give specifications on giving, but it's about the heart that God has given me his very best, so I'm gonna give him back what I was gonna say what he deserves and that's not true because I would give everything. I would just put it all into the middle. But I th it is but it's giving back to God Some of the very best because he's given me his very best Doug: man, that's so good. Yeah, f uh Paul said in first first Corinthians sixteen, set aside some money on the first day of the week to give in keeping with your income That's important. Uh Brad: I will say this. Those ha the hardest times to do that are when that college bill is due. Doug: Oh, when the anything bill is due. Brad: When when You have to fill up and it's really hurt. When you haven't, when you get that pay cutter, you have to change jobs or whatever it is. It is really hard to keep that in mind, but when you can keep it in mind, it changes how you see things. Doug: And Second Corinthians again where Paul has a lot to to say about giving. Uh, he talks about that we're supposed to give without compulsion. Um, Brad, what were you saying about that? You mentioned the other thing we were talking about this this past year. Yeah, and I won't go into Brad: names and everything. This was back two years ago. It just resurfaced last year. I think it's something that's going to keep popping up because it's a viral clip. A couple years ago there's a pastor. He's got his congregation in the room, big gathering, and says, hey I need everyone here to give twenty dollars to meet this goal that he has for something. Uh I need everyone on stage who's like this in a pastoral leadership role to give $100 each. And then he proceeds to say Ushers, close the doors. And like it's kind of lighthearted. Doug: Lock the doors. Brad: And then no, I I look back. It was closed. It was closed. Okay. Close those doors. And he's and he did he did say this. I wrote down this quote because um he said y'all can walk out the door after you come up here and basically put your $20 on the stage. It wasn't even like Venmo or anything. He's like, even if you're doing it electronically, come tap your phone on the stage. Doug: Oh my goodness. So Brad: it was a very public thing. No one leaving until they had all given And and it was a big thing. Now i he had reasons he gave for doing that, but I think that is the the challenge with with people today is they choose not to give because they they say they feel they're being forcing it or coercing it. Doug: Don't do it. Brad: Which there's two sides to that because pastors should talk about giving and I've heard some very good messages on giving. Yeah. I really have. About the heart of giving But you shouldn't not give just because you didn't feel good about the way someone phrased it either. Doug: Yeah, at the heart of it, it's gotta be i like God says God loves a cheerful giver. Man, no matter what the circumstance, if you can't find joy from giving and you're giving begrudgingly, then sadly, man, that's not a gift that pleases God. It it's a question of what do I what do I get to give? Not not what's the least I can get away with here? But but when I have an opportunity to give to God's work, do I get joy out of that? He he loves sacrificial giving. You know, that that awesome story of the um of the widow's might. Uh she just gives a tiny bit and Jesus says, okay, I've seen all the huge amounts that y'all have been giving and by the way, making a big deal out of it. Look what I'm giving. She gave out of her poverty, and she's given more than you guys have. Uh this this doesn't mean that we have to have a pattern of giving where we're giving away the money we're we're going to use to feed our family. No, in First Timothy five eight, God says i if you don't provide for your family, you're worse than an unbeliever. So that's important to him. But it's sacrificial giving is just giving when it costs you a little bit. There's I feel this. When I give I feel this. It's not just out of The it's not just the money I found in my couch, but God is more honored with giving that costs us something than giving that doesn't. Um I when I was when we were uh on the mission field We would keep getting these uh uh these monthly gifts from a lady that I knew did not have money. And and I was like, how is she sending so much? Because we were completely dependent on God's gifts when we were on the mission field there. And and uh for years We were getting fifty dollar gifts every month. Done might not sound like a ton, but it was a ton to her and to us at that point. And I uh I remember talking with her son years later, and I asked him about it. He said, Oh, um, that it was his mom. And he said, that was my mom. Every week she would go out and clean people's homes so she could give to the work you guys were doing. That is giving that costs you something. And apparently she must have received a lot of joy from giving because you have to to go and and be cleaning people's Yeah. Brad: That's kind of where I have an issue with the attitude that I hear people approach things with a lot of times of What do I have to give God? Because the the sacrificial giving is about a heart of gratitude that wants to give to God because of all He has given us. It's what do I get to give to partner with God in what he's doing because that's the heart of when you look at the widow's might where he says, for they have given a tiny part of their surplus But she, poor as she is, has she has given everything she has. And I looked it up again and the two coins she gave were the smallest of coins, smallest of currency back then. And so just imagine you're giving two pennies And those are still a thing, right? Pennies. I mean sort of. Doug: That's how I just paid for my last loaf of bread at Walmart. With a sack of pennies. That's right. Brad: But it is it's it you're putting this before the Lord because you're saying I want to be part of what you're doing. I want to to partner with you. And it's hard to give that sometimes, but that's that's part of what Jesus is addressing in the Widow's Might story is the heart of others, uh giving for show, the the religiosity and all that. Doug: You know, when I think about My own track record of giving and how stingy I think I was as a younger man. Um I I really regret it because as I started to give out of our, I will call it poverty, we were definitely under the poverty line. So I started to give Um, first fruits and and just said God is getting um I I we honestly we prayed that God would change our heart Towards giving. And we started to feel so much joy when we gave. We were like, we we what are we what are we gonna do? What are we gonna give to this month? Um You're giving him I I felt like I missed out on all these wonderful opportunities for God to show his power and his faithfulness in his response to our giving. That whole i it's become a cliche, that whole you can't out give God thing. The guys in this room, we're the furthest thing from the prosperity gospel. We don't believe, okay, you give this and you're promised you're gonna get this back. But I will tell you that uh there I'm just telling you what the what really happened here, the reality. We gave more, and God provided in incredible ways when we started to do that. We had these monstrous um hospital bills again making you know eighteen nineteen thousand dollars a year. We had these huge hospital bills for for our son Taylor. We had to travel all the way to to Philadelphia and and stay there and s and and find lodging and and we had to pay for that and taxis and and and the bill was huge and we got A friend out of nowhere who just uh called and said, Tell me the total this whole trip is costing you. And I'm like, Well b there's the trip and then there's the hospital bills. He said, No, I want to know everything And less than a week later we had a check for that in the mail. Um that is and I know you've had your own You've had your own experiences with that. Brad: Well, I think what this uh what that reminds me of and what I've been reminded of by the Lord over and over again, especially in those times where I have had a harder time being faithful and giving because it's like, oh man, I things are tight. Um, but it is Philippians 4, 18 and 19. Paul says at the moment I have all I need, and more. I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. We don't know how much those gifts were, but we know they were providing for needs And he goes on to say, and the same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. So I that's where it becomes important to believe in his promises because And sometimes he provides in really interesting ways because Uh there was uh uh uh the uh kind of those helicopters, air vac it's called around here where they flies uh you down to wherever medical Doug: facility. Brad: Yeah. Our um our son, when he was a lot younger, uh he uh w just got really sick with really bad flu. They weren't sure if it was that H one N one strain going around and everything They had to lifelight them down and we did not have the insurance to cover that. And those flights can be thousands and thousands of lights. Doug: It's not like you can choose. Brad: No. So Doug: should we send him down or Brad: subscribe now with them, which is a really low cost every year. Yeah. When when they called us, they basically said, well, and I don't know what they knew. I don't know what God put on their hearts, but they said, well You owe us three hundred dollars and and the rest is covered. There was no reason for that to happen. None whatsoever. Yeah, and and we were and So God provided in such a way we still don't know what happened there other than where the it was like the are you sure should we ask that? No. just covered the rest of it. Doug: Just you said something interesting when we were talking about uh getting this episode together about it's um It's more about God what God does to our hearts really when it comes to giving. Uh what what was that? Jesse: Yeah. Well generally there's there's three motives. Um, for why we do something such as giving. There's law, goals, and character. And law is not Old Testament law, just meaning God said so, so that's one reason I do it. But the other two are more about who we are. Goals are what do I want to give towards? What do I want to see happen? And you guys mentioned giving and receiving joy from giving. That's a another reason why I might give. And the final one is character. What kind of person am I? What kind of person do I want to be? And and those second two um are really, really helpful for determining how much we give. You y'all talked about Um when we come to give to the Lord, my my heart's natural uh inclination is to say, how much do I have to give? What's the minimum? And what Jesus does in the Sermon of the Mount He says, you have heard it said, but I tell you, when he says you have heard it said, he's saying, you've heard the bare minimum. Don't kill. Well, it's that's that's not what the law is really about. It's about protecting life. And so you've heard it said, give this much. w that's that's not uh the maximum, that's not the ceiling, that's the floor. What if you had a heart that was fully committed to God and that that wanted uh his his glory to be seen in the world? What would giving like that look like? That changes my perspective on on why I want to give. So Ephesians four twenty eight. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with any one in need. What's the motive of hard work in that verse? So I can give, not because I have to give a certain amount. That confronts my natural sinful inward tendency to be like What's the minimum I have to do for God and how much do I have for me leftover? Doug: It's it's uh letting God take wherever I'm at in my giving. And what what I would suggest you do, I've done this. Find some great verses on giving and generosity and pray them and say, Lord, let this be the truth of my heart. Change my heart because you will. Brad: And on God's provision too. And on God's provision. He will provide. Doug: Amen. Yeah. So what a transformed heart looks like, take a look. This is really awesome. I I had I this kind of slipped my mind until I started looking into this again. Second Corinthians eight These folks called the Macedonians, um, Paul talks about them real quick. Listen to what he says. Now there's a p there's a huge need in Jerusalem. Um a lot of people are really struggling there because of some awful things that have happened to them. The Macedonians are also completely broke. Listen to what he says. Now, brothers and sisters, this is Paul writing to Corinth. We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches in the midst of a very severe trial. And if you read about it, I won't get into it right now, but if they were in some serious straits, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. What? Their overflowing joy, these two things go together, and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity for, I'm telling you, they gave to the struggling believers in Jerusalem as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own. They urgent listen to this, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege Of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. They're broke. And they're going, Paul, tell us what other ways we can give, because, because Their overflowing joy of giving to giving towards this was their motivation. Here's the bottom line, their circumstances didn't change their joy or desire. in giving and so we're about to get to we promise whether you should give when you can't buy groceries. Brad: Well and I think you guys have gotten our heart on that even here. That 's right. I I I mean, spoiler alert, yes. Uh when I what I love about what you just shared there, Doug, is Um my uh my kids know when they have gotten into high school math that when they have questions don't come to me Uh because there's so much math that doesn't make sense. God's math doesn't always make sense, but you just read about it. And that that is God's math about when we are giving generously in his provision and the heart behind it God's math might not always seem like it makes sense when you read it, but start walking in that. Start taking small steps of faith in your giving. You'll see God show up. Doug: Uh our dad was a fun dad as a kid. I'll tell this story really quickly, but it was so funny. Be he would we would get so impatient at at restaurants. Where's the food? Where's the food, Dad? Little kid. And what he would do is he would Say, okay, let me put my magic eyes in. And he would like pretend I'm hoping he was pretending, I don't quite remember, but he would like take his hands, literally up to his hand, and he was like, take his eyes out, let me put in my magic eyes, put them in, and he'd be like, the food will be here in Eight minutes. What he did was he was putting new eyes in, basically, to see the future. A lot of us have to ask God to do that. For us, we know that scripture. Don't store up treasures here. Store for yourselves treasures in heaven. Alright, so should I give when I'm broke? Now Before we answer, like I've been waiting twenty minutes to hear, you might know where we're going with this, but I I want to say this kind of as an aside First, and I don't mean to be mean here, but I had to do this, so you have to too. Be honest about what's made you broke. Um Bad credit decisions, um lots of streaming services, you know, to just to entertain ourselves, expensive phones, phone plans, expensive coffee. Clothes, living in a house you can't really afford. High car payments when all we really need to do is get from point A to point B. Manicures not so much with me or Don't batter me with that. But it all adds up. You know what? If you'll do this, keep track for 30 days. Write down everything you spend on a what and you might be surprised what you're spending on really what are luxuries. Again, nothing wrong with these things, but but if you're super struggling and and you're paying eight dollars for coffee every day you might want to give that a second thought. So for thirty days do that. Brad: Yeah. Doug: Um and and if we insist on because if we insist on these luxuries, then I'm saying, look, I can't give to God Those have become idols that we've really put before him. So take some steps to replace those things and give it to God. There's again, there's nothing wrong. with certain luxuries and moderation. It's a conscience thing really, but ask the Lord about each one and ask him to break your addiction to them. So that you receive more joy out of giving to the Lord than you do giving to, say, Netflix. Brad: Yeah, and uh it's really a good point because as we look at where we're spending uh we get to see just what are uh almost I I I recorded the food I ate for several years it's how I lost fifty pounds was I got more to go, but lost 50 pounds was I looked at the calories. When you look at what you're spending, all of a sudden you're like, oh, I didn't know that was doing that. Doug: So spoiler alert, yes. Give to the Lord when you're struggling financially. Uh back to the Macedonians here, because I think these guys, to wrap things up here, are a great blueprint for giving. when you're broke. A little further in that chapter, Paul says, um, as he's talking about the Macedonians, now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. So here what what you hear there, attitude matters most. Am I given out of a cheerful heart? And Look, you're only expected to give based on your means and your resources, not by what you don't have. God doesn't want us to go into debt to give, but he does want us to give generously, not beyond our means. Brad: Guys, I uh we we trust you've heard our hearts today on this, but more importantly, we just have prayed before the episode that you would hear God 's heart on this, that this is not about a legalistic giving. It's not uh this certain set of percentages, which we we each have input on that But that's on what this is today. This is about saying what is the heart behind your giving? Are you gonna trust God to provide even when you give sacrificially? And are you gonna keep walking with him and partnering in whatever he is doing through that giving? I'd also just wrap up with get out there and serve with your family too. As you give, serve in some of those places you're giving. Your lives will be changed through that. Doug: And as you increase your giving, watch your joy increase. So until next time, how about you guys Brad: go mad with your giving