Bill Johnson - The Affection to Give
Because I have set my affection on the house of God, I have given. Our giving always follows our affection. Thank you, thank you. It’s kind of fun. At the first service, one of our younger pastors was announcing it’s a Rise and Build Sunday, and he couldn’t remember the name of it. Chris leaned over to me and said, «It’s encouraging to have a young man forget something.» So we’ve been feasting off that memory. As clear as I can remember, we’ve been feasting off that. Then he told us afterward that he was going to call it «A Rise and Conquer.» So that’s probably a good name too. Let’s just call this a Rise and Conquer, except it would be more like a destruction derby out there or something.
Alright, grab your Bibles if you would. Open to First Chronicles chapter 29, and let me try to set the stage for you in two separate areas. First of all, almost strangely, I have focused on studying portions of Scripture for the last 40 years that have to do with building. But never once was it about building a building. It’s always been—this prophetic language of Scripture is about building the house of God, which is people. And so there are so many places, you know, from Ezra and Nehemiah to the prophet Haggai, and some of the other prophets; they would talk about the rebuilding of a temple. For example, you’ve got the Tabernacle of Moses in Scripture, the Tabernacle of David, and the Temple of Solomon—the rebuilt Temple of Solomon. You’ve got all these kinds of projects, if you will, and they all required something from the people of God. I have just been attracted to those throughout my life.
We’re going to read from First Chronicles 29; I think I’ve only taught from this chapter once in these 40 years, so it’s not like a portion of Scripture that is a favorite because I like to teach on it. It’s a favorite because of the impact it has on me. And so we’re going to look at that in a moment. My favorite verse concerning anything to do with building would likely be in Haggai 2:8 or 9; I forget which. But it’s where it says, «And the glory of the latter house will be greater than the former.» I would always read these chapters, if you will—these books—about what God was doing in His people: the church, the house of God, not buildings, not organizations, but literally the person sitting next to you and you—the house of living stones being built together into this Tabernacle of God’s presence. That, for me, has always been the focus.
The challenge that I’ve had is I tend to spiritualize things when God is wanting to naturalize things. Paul nailed this with a phrase in First Corinthians 15, where he says, «First the natural, then the spiritual.» It’s possible to dabble in natural things and never realize the spiritual benefits or consequences, but it’s rare to give yourself to the unseen, to the spiritual, and have it not affect the natural. So let me illustrate it so it makes more sense. It’s possible to love people and not love God, but it’s impossible to love God and not love people. In First John, he says, «You’re a liar!"—a very tactful way of encouraging people. «You’re a liar if you say that you love God and you don’t love people.» It shows there’s this unseen reality that must be measured out, realized in some way, or discovered in the natural world.
My heart has always been toward building up the people of God. I think in terms of that great verse I quoted a minute ago: the glory of the latter house being greater than the former meant so much to us 30 years ago because it reminded us of the fact that in the book of Acts, the early church experienced such major visitation of God and impact on the nations of the world. Everyone in Asia Minor heard the gospel; no single person was missed. The impact is astounding, and yet God promised that the glory of the latter house—which is our day—would be greater than the former. Prophecies like that have captured my heart and my prayer life. A song we write, speak, or declare reflects that basically says, «Honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.» What God has already accomplished, He is going to only increase in the days to come.
This has honestly been my food—my personal hiding place with the Lord. These themes are what I come to during a season like this, where we are actually building a building; a Rise and Build, a Rise and Conquer—whatever you want to call it. We are building something because, number one, we believe it’s in God’s heart; number two, it echoes in our hearts; and number three, it’s been specifically detailed to us by the prophets, which plays a huge part in our lives. Anytime you receive a directive word from a prophet, you have to have that witness by the Holy Spirit in you. That’s the responsibility of every believer. It has to be biblical, number one; you have to have peace about it, number two; and you have to sense divine timing, number three. So those three things have to line up.
We have weighed this season together—praying, talking, and planning together—trying to discern what has God already said about this. Oftentimes in our gathering as leaders, we will pose the question: Has the Lord given us a prophetic word about this? Because sometimes, He will give you a word that makes no sense to you until the season changes. Then you realize, «Oh, it’s for now.» Now it makes sense; the season makes the word understandable. So sometimes we’ll have decisions to make, and we’ll just ask the question: Are there any prophetic words? Because we work really hard to— it says they trusted their prophets and succeeded. I want my life to be that; that I trusted in those that God sent to me, and as a result, my life illustrated the benefit of truth in hearing the word of the Lord and obeying it.
Having said all of that, there are many places in Scripture about buildings—lots and lots. But my favorite is First Chronicles 29, and strangely, I think I’ve only preached from this chapter once; it could be twice. But you know, after 40 years, you would think it would have been more often. It’s not my favorite verse because it’s what I want to talk about; it’s my favorite verse because of the impact it has on me. I read through this because there’s something in there that I can feel. It will take us a while to get to it, but I can feel this is actually supposed to impact multiple generations until the return of Christ. It has that kind of longevity; it wasn’t a word for a season. Some words are for seasons; other words define who you are as the people of God for generations until He returns. That’s what this chapter is about.
So let’s go ahead and start. Oh, I’m sorry, I need to do one more thing: David wanted to build a temple for God, so it would be the grand temple that Solomon ended up building. He wanted to build; it was in his heart. What’s interesting is that when Solomon dedicated that temple, he made this statement. He said, «Since the time God brought Israel out of Egypt into His Promised Land, He never chose a city in which to build a house.» So follow the logic here: since the time He brought Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, He never chose a city in which to build a house. The very next phrase: «But He chose David.» And it was in the heart of my father David. That’s stunning! Why? Since this whole thing began, God never picked a city, but He did pick a man, and look what He found in the heart of that man.
To me, that illustrates—I don’t believe it violates sovereignty. I know some would be concerned when I say that—it doesn’t violate the sovereignty of God. In His sovereignty, He brought us into the unfolding of His plans, and He actually, four times in three chapters, invited us into that relational context, where He says, «Whatever you ask for will be done.» We are not robots programmed to repeat certain words. We are not computers programmed to repeat certain words. We are people who get to, in a relational journey, discover His heart and then pray for what we see, and He responds. This temple that David wasn’t allowed to build was in the heart of David. He saw it, and God chose the man.
Now look what He found in the heart of that man. While David wasn’t allowed to build the temple, it was because he was a man of bloodshed; he was a man of war. What does that mean? David was a man of war by God’s design; it was designed by the Lord for him to be a man of bloodshed. Why? Because Israel had land that had been promised to them that they didn’t conquer in previous generations—which they were supposed to; it was supposed to be back in Joshua’s day—they didn’t. So when David became king, they finally had the chance to get everything that God had promised them. He was a man of war, but the Lord said, «You can’t build the house because you’re a man of bloodshed.» This means he’s not being punished because he did his assignment; the Lord is trying to speak to us.
I build on certain kinds of ministries. Some ministries are bloodshed ministries—they tear down; they prepare the way. But the Ministry of Peace, which is what Solomon represents, is the ministry I want to build on. So I’m not going to build on bloodshed. I will build on peace. The rebuke is necessary, but I’m not going to build on the rebuke. I’m going to build on the order of the peace that comes from responding to the correction of the Lord. I’m going to build on peace.
Alright, I thought it was a pretty good point, but I’ll just move on, hoping that someday I get another chance. By the way, we’re just thrilled with our whole online family that joins us week after week. Thanks so much, and I hope that together we can make a real difference in the world through what we’re doing today: Arise and Conquer!
Alright, let’s look at chapter 29. Sorry, let’s not change anything. Alright, chapter 29. I’m going to take you through a number of verses, so please keep your Bible open. Follow along. If you don’t have a Bible, scoot next to someone if you can, and I’ll do my best to go through this quickly but thoroughly.
Alright, verse 3 is where we’ll start. «Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of God, I have given to the house of my God.» Stunning statement! «Because I have set my affection on the house of God, I have given.» Our giving always follows our affection. Our giving always follows what causes our hearts to burn. «Because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the Holy House, my own special treasure of gold and silver.» David’s personal gift had to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in today’s value. He set the stage for Solomon to build what he wanted to build but wasn’t allowed to. Nothing could stop him from giving toward it. So he set the stage and incorporated the nation into the project.
Alright, jump down to verse 6. «Then the leaders of the fathers' houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and hundreds, and the officers of the king’s work offered willingly.» You’ll see this phrase «offered willingly"—either that phrase or something similar—throughout the books where offerings were needed. Ezra and Nehemiah are great examples. They willingly offered, and the reason Paul would later capture this theme is that he tells us in the concept of giving, «Never give by compulsion.» Don’t ever let somebody manipulate you or make you feel guilty so that you can then give. I will never do that to you. But I also know that because so many have been injured in the area of finances, you could understand what I’m saying and take it as a manipulative way. If you ever sense or feel that, do not give. Do not give until there is a joyful willingness in the offering. I’m very serious about this because the Scripture says whatever is not of faith is sin. If you’re manipulated, there is no faith; you’re being controlled. You never want that.
It’s nauseating to see people use Scripture to manipulate others to do something. It’s just not right. We’re supposed to teach the Word and invite people into this journey. Giving is a huge part of my life; I consider it my Disneyland. I try to position my life—Benny and I have never given as low as 20% of our income. We always position ourselves around how we could love this person, serve this person, give to this ministry, whatever it might be. We have found a delight and a joy in giving that we have found nowhere else.
Only one Sunday in my life have I ever given specifics of what I’ve done in giving. It was the week following some interesting articles in the newspaper—very flattering articles if you’re into self-punishment. So I took that Sunday, and the only time in my life I literally went through, «This is what we do,» and outlined it all, showing everybody what we do percentage-wise, everything. The media department wanted to reproduce it, but I said, «Nope, don’t put it in pictures. I don’t want anyone to hear it if they weren’t in the building. It wasn’t God’s will for them to hear it.»
That’s my approach. The giving issue is huge, but it’s the giving willingly that has been such a joyful part of life. So let’s read on and find more of this story.
Verse 9: «Then the people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly because of a loyal heart. They had offered willingly to the Lord, and King David also rejoiced.» So what do you have here? You’ve got, in the first verse we read, King David’s extreme generosity. Second, what do you have? The leaders—those under his direct influence—moving into extreme generosity. And then what do you have? You have the people moving in extreme generosity.
What’s important is to see it has to start with you. If you’re the head of your house, it has to start with you. You can’t expect your kids to be radically generous in the way they think, the way they talk, or the way they serve if it’s not being modeled by you. If you’re in a business where you’re encouraging people to do community service, some sort of volunteer work in the community, if it’s not happening with you as the leader, it’s not going to filter down. It’s not that these people are more important than he’s; it’s just the oil, if you will. The Psalms talk about how the oil flows down Aaron’s head, down his beard, down to his garments. It’s supposed to flow this way.
What you see here is that radical generosity entered the hearts of the people because the standard that David set was so extreme that even his leaders got infected by it, and their standard became so dominant that the people all joined in this joyful giving unto the Lord. Please notice what David gave; I don’t know, it’s probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars, literally. You see David rejoicing in verse 9: «And David also rejoiced greatly.» You don’t see any mention of his hundreds of millions of dollars being compared to a twenty-dollar gift. You don’t see that. Why? Because it’s not equal giving; it’s equal sacrifice. He never used his wealth, if you will, to show he was better than somebody else.
Because it’s from the loyal heart. If you look at the terms used to describe this kind of generosity, it’s the loyal heart, the virtuous heart, the willing heart, the affectionate heart. These are all terms that describe the kind of generosity that you and I have the invitation to move into. I was reminded earlier in our pre-service prayer time of a dear friend of ours, Rick Joyner from Morningstar Ministries, a tremendous prophet and great man of God. He gave a word long ago about the horrible collapse of PTL, Jim Bakker, and Tammy Bakker—with the moral failure and the collapse of that ministry. By the way, if you weren’t here during that day, we had Jim Bakker come back as a very humble and apologetic person. I would never avoid a repentant believer no matter how much shame they have had to endure. We’re going to always champion them as much as we know how.
I’m not embarrassed to be associated with him; if I were, we wouldn’t be able to read out of First Chronicles because of David and his mess. So I want us to be known for really not excusing sin, but walking redeemingly because Jesus heals and forgives. So here, Rick gave this prophetic word that the Lord was jealous over the widow’s mite that built the PTL ministry, and that the Lord would not bless any business trying to take over this potential resort. Rightly so. He’s pro-business; I’m pro-business, so this isn’t an anti-business word. I love to see businesses thrive; I pray for them, actually—in my prayer time, I pray for the blessing of the Lord to be on business.
When we go into a restaurant, I almost always pray for the blessing and prosperity of God to come upon that restaurant when we give thanks for the meal. So I’m just letting you know, I am into the success of businesses; it’s critical to the health of a nation. But in this context, the Lord gave a warning: because God was jealous over the widow’s mite that build PTL, no business would thrive that tried to take over this resort. And it’s exactly what happened: a business bought it and tried to build it into something, and they crashed and burned. Today it’s a Morningstar Ministry facility, which wasn’t his intent; it caught him by surprise.
But the point is that what is given here—whether it’s the millions of a CEO or the ten dollars of a widow—the sacrifice to give it, God is jealous over that. I pray that we realize the full effect of that because what is given to Him, He takes personally.
Alright, let’s get through this. Go over to verse 13. You guys still alive and breathing? Yes?
Alright, verse 13: «Now therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly?» Isn’t that powerful? «For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you.» Look at that again! Who am I that we should be able to offer so willingly? This is a perspective on giving that doesn’t come to any of us naturally. This has to be a work of grace. He’s standing before the Lord, saying, «I’m going to put it in my terms: I’m not worthy to give to you, but somehow in your mercy, your grace, you qualified me to partner with something that you’re doing on the Earth.»
His view on giving was: this is like the greatest gift I’ve ever received—the chance to give to you. That’s not a common way of thinking, but it is biblical. «Who am I?» Then he goes on: «For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you.» It reminds me of when I was a little guy—Christmas time would come, and we wanted to buy our parents a Christmas gift. We had no money, so we would go to Mom and Dad and get money from them to buy them a gift. That’s this right here: David is saying, «Alright, you gave us the money to buy you a gift; here we are being really generous!»
That’s actually the perspective of the privilege of giving. Say this with me: «Everything I have belongs to Him; everything I have I received from Him.» All our giving is—sorry, let me just join right in; I love that. I need to remember! Okay, don’t quote me anymore! Alright, that’s awesome! The opportunity and privilege of giving is a God-given gift. Yes! And when I give, no matter how sacrificially I give, Benny and I find ourselves in a place where we’ve really hurt, but you know you pray better when you’re hurting. You pray so well about your finances—you know?
I pray brilliant prayers when I’m hurting, but we would give to a place of need and then pray our way out. To be honest with you, one of the best things we ever learned was that it’s wrong for me to think I can give God ten dollars, and I’ll have a hundred by the end of the day because then we become manipulators of the principles of God for our own glory. Yet it is equally true that whatever a man sows, that will he also reap, the Scripture says in Galatians 6. It’s mockery to think that you could sow and not reap, that you could plant and not harvest; it’s mockery of God.
So to think I could do something in honor of the Lord—give—and not get a return, I realize we’re wanting to get out of that mode of trying to control or manipulate God, but the fact still remains: giving is planting. Let’s put it this way: it’s a really stupid farmer that plants a crop and doesn’t expect to harvest; he won’t be in the farming business long. We sow in hope. What I’ve noticed in my own journey is I planted some crops 30 years ago that I’m only harvesting today, and the Lord knows when the harvest is needed. I’ve had it returned quickly, and it’s so encouraging—faith-building! But that has to stick, because the next test will not be so quick.
I have to learn to maintain the standard during this quick return and when there’s a delayed return. Tell them I said hi for me! Jesus is calling on the phone!
Alright, let’s quickly go to the verse; I’ve got just a few minutes left here. Go down to verse 17. «I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.» So notice subjects that he correlates—he puts together uprightness of heart and generosity of heart; they are seamless in their theme. «Have pleasure in uprightness.» «As for me, I have uprightness of heart; I have, in the uprightness of my heart, willingly offered all these things. And now with joy I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you.»
And here’s the verse I wanted to read to you: «O Lord our God, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and fix their heart toward you.» Look at that phrase again! «Keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you.»
Why is this significant? David’s my favorite person in the Bible besides Jesus. He was the king of Israel; we know that. But according to his ministry, he would minister before the Lord literally as a priest, and yet he was not of the tribe of Levi. He ministered to the Lord. So he was king and priest. Acts chapter 2 says, «And David, being a prophet, looked ahead and spoke.» So David was almost like a forerunner, an example of Christ Himself, who would be king, prophet, and priest.
David, as the great prophet—let me change the language now to fit this situation—David, the great intercessor, is now praying for something that he wants to see mark the heart and mind of every generation to follow until Jesus returns. I don’t know if you find, and I sincerely mean this, if you find something else he prayed for and declared that was to impact every generation, please show me because I only know of one thing. Here’s this guy who has made his mark with God so significantly; he takes one item and makes it his focus in prophetic decree and prayer, and it’s that radical generosity would be the nature of God’s people in the way they think and in the way they behave from this generation on—every single generation marked with radical generosity.
It’s the one thing he chose to pray for! He could have chosen so many other things that I would have suggested. «David, pray for this, declare this!» But he chose this because it seemed to mark—can I just say? His philosophy of life, his approach to the day, his realization of personal identity, and personal assignment—all of this came out of this place: as God has given me a gift. The gift is I have the chance to give. He actually viewed this as a gift from God that I don’t even deserve—to partner with heaven to see His purposes unfold in the earth. And yet I’m going to embrace my moment as a gift from God because I don’t want to neglect a gift from God.
That was his approach, and he prayed it. He says, «In fact, God, let this mark the heart and mind of every generation to follow.» That’s mind-blowing! It’s mind-blowing that he would capture this one theme and say, «Let this be it! Let this be the one thing!» Integrity of heart, loyalty of heart, rejoicing—all these things are all around this privilege of giving. It’s my Disneyland! It’s a place I get to go to every week, and sometimes every day! It’s the most amazing privilege to partner with the heart of God in caring for people.
It may be something grand like this; I mean, this is the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Or maybe it’s the sandwich that you bring out of Safeway for the guy outside who hasn’t eaten in a week. It doesn’t matter where it is; it’s the approach to life. It’s regardless of whether you have this much or just this much. It’s just the fact that you realize it is my privilege to take this that I have to sow into eternal purpose.