Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Just want to start by saying thank you to everyone that made it out to the workday yesterday.

We had great breakfast, word and got lots done around the building.

We are coming to the conclusion of this sermon series on The Generous life.…

One of the goals of this series is to give us a framework for understanding Why we need to be concerned about the Generous life…

The First reason we should consider the Generous life… is because…

Generosity is God’s way (His method) of Blessing us… God pours out His grace towards us…

“The way that God Gives is through the currency of Grace.”

God gives out

His nature — His Goodness, kindness, mercy, long Suffering, Patience… God giving doesn’t change… He is not generous one day and stingy the next… immutability — God never changes…

The apostle Paul was inspired when he sees God grace at work in the Church...

The Macedonian gave not only that they had but beyond their means…

Paul gives thanks and praise…

Grace is an inexpressible Gift... Paul is at loss for words when he try’s describe the vastness of God’s grace…its

indescribable adj.

— defying expression or description.

Grace is Unmerited Favor…

Grace is Every Blessing that God can give us in Christ Jesus…

It’s the very best of everything God has for us in His plan of Salvation…

The Christian life starts with grace, continues with grace, and ends with grace.

The second REASON we should pursue a Generous life..- is Generosity if God’s method of blessing others…

When God Called Abram to leave his homeland of Ur — God made a Covenant with Abram—

God says to Abram I am going to make you into a great nation and I am going use your seed to bless others..

God was going to favor Israel with influence and wealth… For a purpose... Through Israel all the nations of the Earth would be blessed....

Abram couldn’t have understood this fully.

But as the rest of the Old Testament unfolds we begin to understand that, through the Jewish nation—Abram’s family—God was going to send a Savior, whose atoning blood would bless to Israel and surrounding gentile nations.

When we allow Gods Grace to flow into and through our lives we become this pipeline conduit of Grace — blessing to others.…

Generosity is God’s way of inviting us into His blessing...

This morning we are going to talk about being shaped by the 10% principle....

We are going

What difference does 10 % make?

Ray Johnson in his book, “The Hope Quotient,” asks the question about hope… what would happen if we could raise our hope quotient by 10% - What if we could have 10% more hope in our lives, our work, our marriages.

Would that make a difference?

“When a struggling individual gets just a 10 percent boost in hope, almost anything becomes possible.”

Ray Johnson

Well you could take this analogy a little further and ask…

How about 10% more joy, love, purpose,

How about Growing 10 % in relationships and friends...

What if you could get 10% more health and energy than what you had last year?

Would that make a difference to your life?

10 % is an interesting number…

Athletes who train for marathons — often increase there weekly runs by 10 %..

Experts tell us to try and save 10 % of our earning for retirement… Mary Hunt in her book on “How to Debt Proof your Marriage” -

Give this Formula — 10 - 10 - 80— In that Order.... not 80 -10 -10- Here is why… because

The first 10 % speaks of our giving — first fruits - our tithe.. … the second 10 % goes to savings or towards debt reduction.. retirement.. Then she talks about using the 80 % to living with in your means --- She point out the problem is that most of us.. live on 125% of our income...

What is it about .... 10 % - So here is my thoughts.. First it is a manageable number… it is possible..but it also stretches us...

it’s a number that is attainable and not out of reach…

We all like the idea of improving our lives..

But here is the thing about getting 10 % more out of life .... is that you have to contribute at least 10 % more to get the return… It’s a little a bit like exercise… you have to exert energy upfront to get the health benefits later..

In other words there has to be a contribution somewhere before there are rewards...

But the good news is that studies have proven that people who make contributions are much happier than those who don’t....

When we volunteer our time and give donations ..Not only do our stress levels go down… but it can significantly impact our health..

In his book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, a professor of preventative medicine at Stony Brook University, reports that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness… generosity can reverse disease...

The generous life is a healthy life…that depends on the sufficiency of God’s Grace…

When we expend energy and resources Grace... trusts that as we give... God will replenish…that we will have more grace..

Don’t you love those three words - God is Able… When human limitations and sufficiency fails —God is able...

Paul tells us that God is not only able to meet your needs but that you will have sufficiency in all things at all times.. What a promise...

One of the ways we understand the Bible is through Redemptive History… which basically means that as we read scripture we see God’s plan unfolding

for example..

In Genesis at the Fall - God says to the Serpent — the deceiver…there would always be enmity (dislike/conflict) between the woman’s off spring and satans offspring but Her seed would bruise his head and you will bruise his heal..

Satan would cripple mankind (you will strike at his heel), but the Seed, Christ, would deliver the fatal blow (He will crush your head)…

When it comes to Giving and the tithe we see Redemptive History.. Moves from offerings to tithe to this Grace giving…

If we don’t connect the dots it can get confusing...

In the modern Church there are some difference in opinions on tithing… some say that we don’t see tithing in the NT… we no longer under law but we are now under grace…

But we have to follow the flow of Redemptive History and connect the dots..

We see - Tithing continued through the times of the prophets into the Rabbinic period..it’s present both in the Gospels and in the early church... Tithing Continues for the first three centuries… The early Church Fathers Jerome and Augustine all promoted tithing as a principle as ---”the least that one should give”

The early church was shaped by the Tithe...

We making the wrong assumption if we think that Giving in the new covenant involves less sacrifice… We see greater sacrifice than giving in the old covenant, not less … greater sacrifices, not less.

....

In Acts chapter 4:34 The church was united..they had one heart and soul and people shared everything in common..

The question is — How do we understand tithes and Offerings today?

I’m going to give you a guiding principle..

Guiding Principle is this.. - “Our Giving should be shaped by the OT but defined by Jesus and the Pauls exhortations on giving.”

T/s There are four ways that Tithes should shape our worldview.

1.

Our Priorities are Shaped by the Tithe.

It’s been said that there are two places that we can find our priorities in life… our check book and our Calendar… What we think is important we will invest in… and we will make time for it…

— Erasmus — theologian in 1500’s wrote in a letter.

“When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”—

Our calendars and checkbooks often determine our priorities,

The principle of tithing is about setting the proper priorities -

It’s about our contribution and stewardship of time, talents and treasure..

giving God your first fruits -Putting God first…

the word Tithe comes from the Hebrew word tenth… it literally means giving a 10th of persons income…

In the OT it was often in the form of cattle and crops.... they would literally count cattle and every tenth was given to the Lord....

In so doing so they would avoid discriminating between those that were weak or strong..

Tithing began by a generous gesture by Abram… in Genesis 14..

When Lot was living Sodom — the city was captured and Lot and his family were carried off as prisoners of war...

Abram goes on this risky covert mission to rescue Lot… Not only is Abram successful in his mission but returns with plunder of war..

Some of Abram’s allies come to see him on his return, and one of them is the king of Salem, Melchizedek, who is also “priest of God Most High.”

He blesses Abram, and Abram gives him a tenth of his plunder...

When Abram gave to Melchizedek there was no specific instruction about tithing — Rather his giving was a very human response… Abram had received favor… not only saving his family but came back with spoils of war… It seemed good to give back… Interesting that tithing happened before the Law…

The first instruction on tithing is given in Lev 27 — Tithing became part of the Mosaic law… Moses said that a 10th of crops and flocks belongs to the Lord…was given to support the priesthood..

If you look at that Law — Required Tithing — It was the Rule… When it come to Gospel Jesus was more concerned about the principle or the reason… Paul is is concerned about Practice or Relationships..

law = Rules

Christ = Reason

Paul (Epistles) - Relationship..

For the Law the priority was obedience that brought blessings… Blessing and the curses in Deuteronomy 28..

For Jesus the Priority was about the Kingdom..

Jesus was more concerned about Eternal life than temporary wealth and gains.

In the sermon on the mount… He warned his disciples of the dangers of becoming to become preoccupied with the love of money… Jesus said..

Jesus didn’t teach that having money is unimportant… What he is talking about is excessive devotion to money… Where money becomes your sole goal in life…

He compares it to a Master… no one can serve two masters because He will love the one and hate the other… Where your treasure is --- there is your heart will be also…