(upbeat music) - We have a big week ahead on Christmas related themes on the podcast, but we start the week talking about fundraising, something that happens a lot this time of year, and a couple, Luke and Katie, write in to ask you this, "Dear Pastor John, "I know you are familiar with men such as Hudson Taylor "and George Mueller.

"Should we ask our brothers and sisters in Christ "to help fund the work we feel God has called us to, "or should we simply believe that he will fund "the work as we seek him in prayer "without making our needs known to men?" What would you say to Luke and Katie?

- Two clarifications about Mueller, George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. Both of them, and they knew each other, had resolved that they would never ask anyone for money. That's true. But they most emphatically did make their needs known in general. Both of them published monthly records of what had come in to the mission and what it had been spent on, and where they were in the big picture financially.

So it's misleading to give the impression that the donors to the orphanages and to China Inland Mission were kept in the dark about the overall needs. It is true, and I don't wanna sell these men short, they were incredible. It is true that from day to day, there were specific needs that were not made known except to God in prayer.

This is where the miracles became most evident. But it would not be accurate to say that there were no regular communications to the donors about the general financial situation or what had been given. That's the first clarification. Here's the second one. Neither George Mueller nor Hudson Taylor prescribed this approach of theirs as the only biblical way, neither of them.

George Mueller was especially explicit about this. He said that his main motive in starting the orphanages and running them this way was so that the Christian church in his day would have some fresh evidence that God answers prayer. It was, he felt, a very special calling, a calling on him that was appointed for him and not necessarily for everybody else to glorify God in this extraordinary dependence day to day without telling everybody that the breakfast for tomorrow morning in the orphanage wasn't on hand.

So we saw remarkable things. Now with those two clarifications, my answer is that neither Mueller nor Taylor would say it is sinful for a Christian missionary to write a letter to possible supporters to explain the mission, to give vision, and to invite people to join them in financial support.

In fact, I would go beyond saying that it's permitted in the Bible. I would say it is modeled in the Bible as the normal way of doing missions. And I would base that mainly on 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. I think every Christian who hopes to receive gifts of money or support some ministry becomes a master of these two chapters.

So let me just show you what I mean by walking quickly through. Paul explicitly urges the Corinthians. So you could say 2 Corinthians in chapters 8 and 9 are a ministry support letter because he is trying to raise money for the offering that he with others are gathering to take to the poor saints in Jerusalem.

You can read about that elsewhere in Paul's letters. So he says in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 8, "As you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love, see that you excel in this act of grace also." Now that's a virtual command.

Get on board with the giving. Or verses 8 and 9, he softens it, but doesn't remove it. He says, "I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others," namely the people up in Macedonia that I've just told you about, "by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." And the implication is so clearly, since they have done so well, Jesus did so well, you're gonna do so well in the giving when I arrive.

Or verse 12, he encourages them that the willingness is what counts. And yet, here's what he says, verse 12, "For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what a person doesn't have." In other words, he's saying, "Look, I'm not expecting any particular amount from anybody.

I know you're in different places financially. What matters is your heart. So if you have a little, give a little. If you have a lot, give a lot, 'cause it's your heart that matters." Or verse 19 and 20, he puts his own financial integrity on the line. He says, "This grace is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill.

We take this course so that no one should blame us about the generous gift that is being administered by us." In other words, you can give to us because we got all the safeguards in place for the integrity of those who are handling this money. Or chapter eight, verse 24, he returns to an explicit exhortation.

"So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you." And then in chapter nine, it's just so amazing to me. He goes so far as to say that the reason he's sending someone ahead with this letter is so that their giving would not humiliate him when he gets there.

He says, "I'm sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter so that you may be ready as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we'd be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident." I mean, that's incredible, the way he's motivating them to give.

Look, he says, "Look, I've boasted about you guys. I've told them you're generous. If you're not generous, I'm gonna look like an idiot. And you're gonna be shamed and I'm gonna be shamed because you are generous in Christ. Become what you are now." Or he goes on and gives arguments that we should have great generosity in the freedom of giving.

And that's a real familiar passage. God, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And so maybe just one more, verse 12 of chapter nine, "For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is overflowing in many thanksgivings." In other words, get on board with this because you're gonna meet the needs of saints and God's gonna get a lot of thanksgiving.

So, unless Luke and Katie feel an unusual calling from the Lord to demonstrate his extraordinary need-meeting power along the lines of Mueller and Taylor, the clear biblical pattern for the support of Christian ministry is to enlist Christian churches like the Corinthians to be part of it. And how to go about it, I think, is laid out about as clearly as it could be in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Really, the issue comes down to where are Katie and Luke going to put their trust? Will they put it in glossy brochures and fancy websites and cleverly written letters? Or will they have a brochure and have a website and send their letters and put their trust in their heavenly Father who promises to meet every need as they seek the kingdom first?

Yeah, that is so good. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the question, Katie and Luke. You can send your questions into us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Or you can go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, the Christmas season is fully engaged, and tomorrow we are joined by a historian to talk about one of the most controversial figures of the Christmas story.

It's Herod the Great. I will ask this historian of the story of the slaughter of the innocents, the killing of all boys two years old and younger in the region of Bethlehem. If that is historically true or if it's a fiction, and if it really happened, why are there no other historical records of the event outside of the Bible?

It's an interesting question, a rather big historical question, and it's on the docket for tomorrow. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)