Giving to God
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Pray
Imagine you were given, every month, £200 by God.
[What would you do with £200 every month to give to someone?]
£200 to do something good with it for the kingdom of God. So you could give it to the church in your envelope if you wanted. You could support a missionary one month. You could help out a family in need one month. You could use it one month for the foodbank and help restock that.
The options are endless - EVERY month you can help someone or the church for the glory of God and for the benefit of his kingdom.
And you might give it to a missionary one month and they might say to you - ‘wow, I don’t know what to say, that’s a lot of money - that’s very generous of you.’ Your reply would be, ‘actually it’s not generous of me at all, because it’s NOT MY MONEY TO KEEP. I have been given this money precisely to give it away for the kingdom of God.’
So every month you are happy to give that money away because it’s not yours in the first place - it’s God’s money that he’s giving you as long as you use it to help others and benefit the kingdom of God.
Think of what we could DO with that money -especially if it happened to EVERYONE! It blows your mind - what you could do… I mean, WOW.
Pause
But here’s the awesome news…it IS happening to everyone. And it’s a concept that started right in the Old Testament...
“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.
And holy means set apart - as separate for the Lord. And a tithe is 10% - a tenth of everything that we have is the Lord’s…and, because it’s a percentage, it’s a different amount for each person, depending on what your income is.
So thousands of years ago, the Israelites were told - commanded - to give a tenth of everything they produced, whether crops, grain or animals, to the Lord. And this tithe was given to the Levites who were doing the Lord’s work....
“I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.
So here’s the way it worked...
People grew crops or raised animals, except the Levites who worked in the temple or the tabernacle as priests…In other words, those doing God’s work. But if those doing God’s work didn’t grow crops or raise animals, how would they survive? How would THEY make their living?
Well, that’s why the Lord commanded the tithe - 10% of everyone else’s income went to pay the Levites who couldn’t raise money themselves because they were in an ‘industry’ or a career that didn’t produce an income. In other words, it paid for their salary and the upkeep of the temple.
Now that’s the Old Testament, What about the New Testament - what does it say?
Paul, in 1 Corinthians write this...
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Now Paul doesn’t mention an amount, but if you give as you prosper, that also means that there will be a different amount given depending on how prosperous you are…which sounds a lot like a percentage to me. But what percentage? How do we know how much to give as we prosper??? Paul doesn’t give a percentage, so what do we do?
How about…I don’t know…how about we start at 10%? Makes sense to me.
But if we do that…sorry, WHEN we do that, think of the impact that has.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians...
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And the verse before, Paul says this...
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Pause
Now, let’s put the Old Testament and the New Testament together.
10% of what we earn is the Lord’s. I don’t think that’s changed, even after the coming of Jesus Christ. 10% of our income ISN’T OURS, it is God’s to give back to him. So if we aren’t giving 10% at least back to the church then we are essentially robbing God.
And the church isn’t an profitable organisation - in fact, it’s considered a charity precisely because it’s not that type of industry - it’s not a money-making church. It depends on the donations of its members to survive - like the Levites in the Old Testament.
So how can ministers, missionary workers, youth workers, family workers be paid?
How will church programs, heating bills, electricity bills, maintenance be paid?
...Unless the members give to the church in the same way as they gave to the Levites in the Old Testament?
And that’s why we have our offering every week.
Pause
So the question isn’t, why do we give - that’s kinda obvious. The question is do we give our 10%? And if not, why not?
And to look at that I want to consider the passage we read earlier from Exodus, but as we look at it, remember the verse on the screen at the minute - and let me paraphrase it... whoever gives little won’t get much back, but whoever gives generously will get loads back. But don’t do it reluctantly.
Pause
So in our passage in Exodus. God instructs Moses to build the tabernacle which is pretty much a tent where God can meet with his people. It was the pre-cursor to the temple. God has already given instructions in Exodus 25-28 on how the tabernacle and everything in it should be made. So now it’s time for Moses to get to work.
Thing is, these people have been wandering in the wilderness for a long time and in the wilderness there’s a distinct lack of materials to build a tent and everything that God wants to go inside it. So Moses gathers all the Israelites together and asks the congregation of Israel for help and Moses says…
Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
“Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded:
In other words, Moses is saying to the Israelites – All this work needs done and you know what we need to get it done, so if anyone wants to help out, please help us out.
And then a crazy thing happened. The appeal worked. People gave to the work of God. They gave their gold and precious stones and whatever they had as well as their talents – and we see this in verse 20:
Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.
Now what made people respond in this way? They responded like this cos they saw the value in investing in God’s work.
You see, in this passage, it’s not so much a command to give, but more like a request to partner in the work. And when you’re a partner in the work, in the same way that you would partner in a business, you are happy to invest, because you have a vested interest in the project and of course cos you want to see a return on your investment.
[when you partner in a project you have a vested interest in the project]
Remember the verse I asked you to remember - if you sow generously you will reap generously. You WILL get a return on your investment.
And this is the attitude that we need to have when we think about giving to the church...
Don’t think of giving as a chore. ‘I MUST give my 10%’. Don’t even think of it as a command - think of it as partnering in God’s work and in God’s kingdom. And, if you want an incentive, cos Paul gives us one…think of how much you’ll get back as a return on your investment.
Pause
But, going back to what I asked you to imagine at the start of the sermon…Think of what you can do with all that money - think of the people you’ll affect, think of the other people you could employ as a church, think of the outreach you could do, think of the endless opportunities for mission and how you could support so many missionaries if we simply gave 10% - or if we simply gave God what is HIS in the first place.
Cos this is the amazing thing about tithing. Kate and I have had the immense opportunity to bless others in need and to see the joy and gratitude on people’s faces when we offer them our tithe is awesome and so rewarding. And they say, ‘we can’t accept THAT,’ but we say, ‘listen, it’s NOT our money to keep - this is what God has given us to give away to support the kingdom. So Take it. I’m giving it away anyway so it might as well be to you’
Pause
But this attitude is all well and good, but if you’re just about balancing your accounts at the end of each month - if what’s going out is almost to the penny what’s coming in... if your outgoings are MORE than your incomings and you’re NOT giving 10%, then what do you do?
It’s all well and good teaching this, but practically, for some people, it’s impractical.
I get that.
But let me tell you what I’ve noticed from leaving work to go into the ministry.
Firstly, there’s always something you can cut back on… but it’s about priorities. And the lesson I learned was where is God on my list of priorities when it comes to my giving. Is you car or sky TV or you love of food or dining out or whatever - is THAT more important than partnering in God’s work and giving God what’s his?
And secondly, and it’s back to that verse I asked you to remember…when you give up, sacrificially, something for God, he takes care of you in ways that will blow your mind.
Pause
When I left work to go to the ministry, I was getting around £2,500 per month home, and when I was in college, I got a bursary of £7,000 per year.
But for some reason that I cannot explain, we were better off financially when I gave up my career for the Lord than when I was in secular work.
And there have been times when we have thought, ‘we could really do with NOT giving our tithe this month’ but we have given it anyway - and that month we have managed to survive and often times we have got more money in than we gave away in the first place.
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
THAT’S the point. And the Lord says it to Malachi too..
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Test me in this and see if I don’t throw open the floodgates and pour out so much blessing. But let’s remember that the blessing MIGHT not be financial. I’m not preaching prosperity gospel here, but in a sense I am. Cos if you give to God HE WILL make you prosper - but it might not be financial prosperity. It might simply be the joy of knowing that you have participated in God’s work and you are partnering in this - investing in the kingdom of God.
Pause
But this requires faith - because sacrificing our income in such a way is scary stuff. And some of you might think “I’m sorry Andre, I can’t afford to do that.”
With all the grace that I have in me, I’d like to respond to that by saying this… you can’t afford not to. But have faith that God will repay you. Cos by not partnering in this you’re missing out on God opening the storehouse of heaven and blessing you more than you can imagine.
But God wants people who are willing - not reluctant. So Holy Spirit give us the vision of the joy in partnering with you in your work.
Pause
But one thing I’d like to leave with you is this…teach this concept of tithing to your children, if they’re young enough, or your grandchildren if you’re old enough.
My parents taught this to me from an early age, and so when you’ve no money as a child it’s easy to give away 10% when you get some money cos you’ve got 90% to spend. And as I earned more money, I adjusted that accordingly, cos I still had 90% to spend. So I got £40 a week from Primark, but I was ok to give £4 away cos I had £36 to spend - WOOHOO. It’s easy to do when you start from nothing.
Now, I’m telling you this not to praise me, but in a sense to praise my parents. Their teaching made this easy for me and I am so thankful for that.
But when you’ve allocated 100% of your income, it’s very hard to cut back and find 10% to give to the church - it’s easier to start this young, but if we don’t teach our children or our grandchildren then we are in trouble…cos the ones who give at the minute are YOU. The giving among the younger generation isn’t great at all. In fact, it’s abysmal…
I was given a pound by my mum at church to give into the collection…it’s like some people are still only giving a pound. And to make it worse, there is a really high percentage of the younger generation who are up to their eyes in debt.
Pause
We need to grasp what it means to partner in God’s work by supporting ministers and missionaries and churches in their upkeep and ministry. We need to see the immense joy in being part of that and the awesome abundant blessings that God gives US if we give to him. And that makes us cheerful givers.
God has given us 10% of everything we receive to use to give back to him by giving to the church or supporting missionaries or helping the poor. 10% to do whatever we want with it for his kingdom. That’s amazing. Imagine what we could do if we all gave 10% - the opportunities are endless.
Question - will you partner with God in this?
Let’s pray.