Join us for the last installment of the Going Going Gone series as we challenge our congregation to invest in the elimination of our building debt and expansion of our parking lot. Our prayer is to be debt free going into our 50th anniversary celebration in September and more importantly, be poised for the next 50 years of ministry that God has in store for Burke Community Church.
Be a part of the Going Going Gone campaign at: burkecommunity.com/pledge
During the 2024 World Series, Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers’ first baseman, used his batting prowess to propel his team to victory.
In Game 1, he positioned his team for an early lead by hitting a jaw-dropping grand slam off Nestor Cortes Jr. of the Yankees. It was the first walk-off grand slam in baseball history. This is when the effects of the grand slam exceed the opponent’s score at the bottom of the game’s final inning, thus ending the game. Amazing.
In Game 2, the Dodgers dominated again when Freeman homered at a critical moment.
In Game 3, he exploded at the plate again with a two-run home run. Yankee fans at the game said when he hit this long ball the energy and hope got sucked out of the team.
Even though his team lost the fourth game, he continued the hit-fest with a fourth home run. All in all, he completed the series with an average of .300 with 6 hits, 4 homers, 12 RBIs, and 5 runs scored in 5 games. No wonder he was named the 2024 World Series MVP. That is the Most Valuable Player to those who are not into baseball but should be.
As we turn our attention from physical to spiritual baseball today in our Going, Going, Gone! capital campaign program, we can’t help but think of the Freddie Freemans on our great team. They are players you can count on to hit the clutch ball when needed. They know how to get base hits, and they also know what it takes to jump on the right pitch at the right time and drive it out of the park to position our team for a win.
From what I’ve seen as your coach during the last four capital campaigns, our bench is loaded with Freddie Freemans. When it came to stepping up the plate in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, you hit home runs in relation to your giving. The $14 million we received for the down payment on our new $17.9 million dollar worship center, coupled with the money you have sacrificially given since our loan commenced in 2021, has positioned us to owe only $2.25 million on the remaining balance, which will be paid off in 2028 instead of 2051. With financial hitters like you, it’s only logical during this 50th anniversary of our team to challenge you to give to erase this debt early so we can do even greater ministry to people in our Lord’s name.
Additionally, since our team has continued to grow spiritually and numerically, we need to realize our “stadium” parking needs to be expanded by adding 182 stalls for future players. Think of how your gift will impact the lives of countless people, not just in the here and now but in the future as they come to worship the Savior with us. As I have said, the cost for this project is $2.25 million, but this is well within reach for a team represented by a roster of players named Freddie.
What do spiritual players who desire to hit financially well for the team owner, Jesus, think about as they approach the plate? Let’s ask the question differently while also making it highly personal.
How Do You Hit A Financial Home Run With Your Giving To God?
As you dig your cleats into the dirt of the batter’s box and wait for your opportunity to hit well in this capital campaign opportunity, here are the hitting tips spiritual Freddies are focused on.
- Long Ball Tip #1: Get The Right Perspective (Matt. 6:19-24). Successful players realize that the temporal is not as important as the eternal. They know the seen world is lesser than the unseen. They know that earthly treasures pale into significance in relation to heavenly treasures. They respond by using earthly treasures to invest in spiritual and kingdom pursuits that will earn them the heavenly treasure the Lord will give them when He sees them.
- Long all Tip #2: Realize Future Reward For Current Play (1 Cor. 3). Successful players know that their entire level of play will be evaluated and rewarded by the team owner, Jesus, one day. So, they swing away when spiritual opportunities come their way, be what they may.
To these excellent long-ball financial hitting tips, we add one more today.
Long-Ball Tip #3: Work Your Plan
What does this mean? As a spiritual hitter, where your finances are concerned, you have a plan for how you will hit, and it is not just some ethereal, pie-in-the-sky concept but one you practice. You do this because you fully understand that all you possess is entrusted to you by the Lord, and He is looking for how you will use all of this blessing to advance His kingdom causes before He calls you home (cf. The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:15-28; The Parable of the Minas, Luke 19:13-25). Many verses are inscribed on your heart and mind as you hit:
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it (Psalm 24).
8 ‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2).
10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50).
Yes, you know that all you possess, from your home to your various investments, are His, not yours. You know He has entrusted this portfolio so you can care for your temporal needs. Ultimately, you also know He desires to see how you will use them to fulfill spiritual needs and goals that will impact people in the here and now while also expanding His kingdom goals on earth. This heavenly perspective of divine ownership of your money and possessions logically leads Freddie Freeman hitters to focus on two things to help them land their plan squarely on the pitch we call finances.
One, spiritual Freddie Freeman hitters know that a productive, powerful financial giving plan is scheduled. In the Old Testament, God required His people to give a proportional tenth of their resources to the Levites (Leviticus 27:30-33), which was their equivalent of pastors. Another 9% was collected for a sacred meal (Deuteronomy 12:5-18), underscoring annual giving at 19%. A third tithe, which Israel collected every three years, was given to support orphans, widows, and the poor (Deut. 14:28-29; 26:12-13). If you calculate the additional amount they gave every three years, average it, and apply it to the annual tithe, then the typical Israelite gave 22% to 23% to God.
When we speak of a tithe, we typically think of 10% because that is what the word means. It is typically tied to Abraham voluntarily giving the high priest Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils he secured when he used his military muscle to deliver Lot from hostile forces (Gen. 14). God did not command this. It came voluntarily from a heart thankful for God’s provision and protection. As such, it became the floor, but not the ceiling of giving during the period of the Law of Moses.
In the New Testament, tithing in relation to the Old Testament model is mentioned eight times (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42; 18:12; Hebrews 7:5-6, 8-9), but it is not applied directly to the Church but appears in discussions about the Mosaic model, a model which is fulfilled because of the person and work of Jesus (Romans 2:14; 2 Corinthians 3:7-13; Hebrews 7:11-12). Now, according to Paul, tithing … or giving … is based on the proportion of God’s blessing on your life:
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come (1 Corinthians 16).
What is proportional giving? It is giving not tied specifically to a percentage but is left open-ended for you to give in relation to how God is blessing your life. Hence, based on this model, it could be 15% one year, 12% in another quarter, 9 % in another year, and even larger percentages later in life.
Most spiritual players think giving 10% is the New Testament model, but it isn’t. It is just a model to follow, not a command. I remember the first time I came home with money from mowing lawns in the hot, blistering desert sun of the Imperial Valley, California. My parents quickly informed me that 10% of this belonged to the Lord. I replied, “Hey, he wasn’t out in the sun working for this.” My weak and spiritually immature argument quickly evaporated as I learned that the Lord had given me the mower, the health, and the opportunity to work in the first place. Naturally, I was challenged to give 10% back in thanks and adoration. That, however, was just a model to follow, not a mandate.
Do you have a giving plan, and is it scheduled? Most Christians don’t, sadly. Currently, the average church attendee gives 2.5% of their income annually to the Lord. Thirty-seven percent of those who call themselves believers give nothing to the churches they attend. Only 2.7% of evangelical believers practice giving at least 10% annually.
Our team has a giving base of 1,200. That means we have another 1,000 players who do not give consistently. Could you imagine what would happen if these players played? Since the median salary in Fairfax County is $150,000, this means if these players made that annual salary and tithed from it, we would receive an additional $15 million per year, which is double our budget. We wouldn’t need a capital campaign program based on this model. I know the math of the model is not airtight, but it does help to give us a fresh way to think about our giving as it relates to the local church.
So, if you have a giving plan, I congratulate you for being obedient to invest in God’s work, which is more important than all other work. If you do not have a giving plan, I challenge you today to pray about getting your financial house in order so you can give consistently per God’s design. And how do we know this is His design? Let’s go back to Paul’s words to the Corinth Community Church:
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come (1 Corinthians 16).
Please note some educational concepts, as Howard Dayton points out in “Your Money Counts: The Biblical Guide to Learning, Spending, Saving, Investing, Giving, and Getting Out of Debt.”
- Giving should be personal. The phrase “each one of you” informs us that the benefits and call to be given relate to all believers: old, young, rich, poor, educated, and uneducated.
- Giving should be periodic. The saints in the NT era gave “on the first day of every week,” which was Sunday, or the day of our Lord’s resurrection. Talk about systematic giving.
- Giving should be out of a private deposit. “Put aside and save” reveals how Paul expected saints to actually know how much they cordoned off from their regular finances to give frequently to God.
- Giving should be premeditated. Paul challenged these saints to think their giving plan through and act on it.[1] I would add to Dayton’s insights.
- Giving should be proportional in relation to how God has prospered you. We have seasons where God blesses us financially; sometimes, it is more challenging. Regardless, we are all free to base our giving plan on the degree of God’s blessing in our lives. There is no legalistic concept here, just grace and freedom.
As I have stated, historically, we have many skilled financial hitters on our team, hitters who know and practice the five points I’ve just mentioned. But, there is room for more to understand what the Scripture means when Paul says,
35 “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” (Acts 20)
If you want to be truly blessed by God, learn what it means to have a scheduled giving plan. Do it, and watch God open the windows of blessing on your life.
In addition to this, there is a second discipline related to having a giving plan.
Two, spiritual Freddie Freeman hitters know that a productive, powerful financial giving plan is spontaneous. Second Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 teach us great truths about spontaneous giving.
A year prior, Titus had informed churches in the region of how the mother church in Jerusalem struggled financially. Now, the time for a general churchwide collection had arrived.
Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. 3 For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, 4 begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, 5 and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. 6 Consequently we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. 7 But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.
8 I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. (2 Cor. 8)
Let me summarize what Paul says here.
According to verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 16, the Corinthians were aware of the financial need of the mother church in Jerusalem. With this knowledge came an opportunity to give, and the poor Macedonians did magnanimously. Now, Paul looked to see if the Corinthian saints would rise to the occasion and fulfill their former desire to give. He used the Macedonians’ selfless giving and the tremendous sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to secure their salvation as motivational points for spontaneous giving. After all, Jesus, who was rich, became poor (Phil. 2:7) so He could pay their sinful debt, resulting in the opportunity for them to be spiritually wealthy by becoming His children at the moment of faith. Based on Christ’s sacrifice, therefore, a monetary spontaneous sacrifice was not too much to ask.
As Paul dispatched a team of three men (2 Cor. 8:23; 9:3) to collect these spontaneous gifts from the Corinthians, he reminded these ancient saints why they should give generously over and above their regular scheduled giving:
6 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. 7 Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9)
Spontaneous generosity is a great way to hit for two reasons.
One, sow much, reap much; sow little, reap little. What is true in the physical realm of farming is also true in the spiritual realm. The more seed you cast, the more significant potential you have for a great crop. The same holds true spiritually speaking. Give much when a unique opportunity presents itself to advance the Lord’s kingdom, and you can expect an outpouring of various forms of blessing on your life.
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, born in 1888, dropped out of school in sixth grade to work in the mechanical field. At 16, he professed faith in Jesus, and eventually, he owned a factory that made all of the earthmoving equipment in World War II. He is best known for living on 10% of his earnings while giving 90% away to the cause of Christ. In his lifetime of planned and spontaneous giving, he gave away $10 million to Christian and educational endeavors. He sowed bountifully, and God blessed him and others bountifully. What a mindset. What a hitter. LeTourneau played like a spiritual Freddie Freeman. As he once quipped, “I shoveled it out, and God shoveled it in.”
Two, a great reason to give spontaneously is that God loves a cheerful player, not a grumpy one, about the opportunity that comes his way. Are you cheerful as you think about how the Lord would have you hit in relation to our capital campaign program? I hope so because that is the kind of hitter the Lord is looking for.
As you contemplate how these three spiritual long-ball hitting tips will impact the pledge you will make today, I’d like to invite you to hear a word of testimony and challenge from one of our Freddie Freeman-type hitters, Michelle Dillard, who is the Director of our excellent Women’s Ministry program.
[1] Howard Dayton in “Your Money Counts: The Biblical Guide to Learning, Spending, Saving, Investing, Giving, and Getting Out of Debt,” (Gainesville, GA: Crown Financial Ministries, 1996), 79-80.
