My hearts location...
weGive • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsSermon on the importance of giving of our fincances to the work of Christ.
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The trouble with money...
The trouble with money...
Money is an intersing thing. Money is one of those things that you have to have. Money can be extremly useful, or extremely divisive. With money you can build, you can travel, you can aquire stuff. With money you can tear things down, you can ruin relationships, you can devestate families.
Paul writes to Timothy and cautions him about loving money, one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible happens to be found in first Timothy
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
People make money evil but God never did that. He understood something humans like stuff, they like to gather stuff, they like to collect stuff, they like to display stuff. Humans need stuff to focus on, to validate themselves. The more ornate and beautiful the stuff the better. Stuff matters to human beings. Money is the way to aquire stuff. The more money we have the more stuff we have, the more money we have the nicer the stuff we have. When we stop seeing money as a tool and start treating it as a collectors item we are headed for trouble. When we read about people wandering from the faith and having many pains because of money it reminds me of this guy.. Slide of Golum Expound on his unhealthy love of the ring.
God has a pretty good way of dealing with this issue of loving money it's found here.
Proverbs 3:9–10
Honor the LORD with your possessions
and with the first produce of your entire harvest;
When we put god first in our posessions, we begin to look at things and see them in a different light. The stuff we acrue should take on a new meaning. If we look at our money in light of how to Honor God first the danger decreases. Seeing our money and our stuff as tools to further Gods plan in our lives and the lives of others is the beginning of a deeper relationship not just with God but with our family, our church, and our community.
Why we give matters...
Why we give matters...
Mark 12:41–44
41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, He watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning His disciples, He said to them, “I assure you: This poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed —all she had to live on.”
And a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.
There has been debate in recent years by scholars more well studied than I am about tithing. There is a big debate in the church world about how you tithe, or if you even have to. If it's an Old Testament concept that is done away with in the New Tesament, If there is supposed to be a set amount (10% because of Abraham and Mechizadeck) If pastors have the right to talk about it, or demand a tithe. All of these things I believe take away from the central purpose of the importance of giving, the importance of tithing. It's important to understand what a tithe or titheing is.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Tithe, Tithing
Tithe, Tithing.
Words deriving from Old English for “tenth,” and representing a charge upon produce or labor levied for the maintenance mainly of religious activities. The custom is very ancient (Abraham paid tithe of spoil to Melchizedek, Gn 14:20; cf. 28:22), and widely practiced, being known in Athens, Arabia, Rome, Carthage, Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and China.
There is a duty to giving that can't be ignored, reading the story about the widdows gift we see that that duty was taken seriously. It was a public issue as well. IF Jesus and the disciples were sitting across from the treasurey and could watch what people were giving it tells us that it's not some hidden away secret thing. We are supposed to give, and it's okay for people to know we are giving. The issue isn't that, the issue that comes up is a bit different. It's in the why we give. 10% isn't as important to me in the grand scheme of things as the fact that giving happens. Regular sustained percentage giving is important. What's even more important though is the fact that these verses in Mark show that 10 percent is a jumping off point. With the widdow giving all she had not just a portion but all of it to the furtherance of the Gospel. She knew others could see her, she knew others were giving more, yet her attitude was the right one. It's not about how much I am giving, I'm not able to put in huge sums of money, but I am able to give. I'm not ashamed of what I am able to give, I'm not making exuses for not giving, I'm not hiding what I can give, i'm simply being obedient. I give because I get it. God doesn't need my money but on this earth in this place where real world problems real world heart aches and real world ministry has to happen God's chosen ambasadors for his word and plan to go ahead do need my money. (expound)
A different return on investment...
A different return on investment...
But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We don't give to get, at least we shouldn't give to get. What God promises though is when we give, first and when we give generously of what we have, and sacrificially of what we need there is someting happening that goes beyond our bank acounts. Listen to this true story
Years ago, a preacher noticed a family standing in front of him at a New Orleans convenience store did not have enough money to pay for their few items. He tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “You don’t need to turn around, but please accept this money.” The man took the money without ever seeing the preacher.
Nine years later, the pastor was invited to speak at a church in New Orleans. After the service, a man walked up to the preacher and shared this story about how he had come to faith in Christ: “Several years ago, my wife and our child were destitute. We had lost everything, had no jobs, no money and were living in our car. We also lost all hope, and agreed to a suicide pact, including our child. However, we decided to first give our son some food, so we drove to a convenience store to buy him some food and milk.”
“While we were standing in line at the store, we realized that we did not have enough money to pay for these items, but a man behind us asked us to please take the money from his hand and not look at him. This man told us that ‘Jesus loves you.’”
“We left the store, drove to our designated suicide site, and wept for hours. We couldn’t go through with it, so we drove away. As we drove, we noticed a church with a sign out front which said, ‘Jesus love you.’ We went to that church the very next Sunday, and both my wife and I were saved that day.”
He then told the pastor, “When you began speaking this morning, I knew immediately that you were the man who gave us that money.” How did he know? The pastor was from South Africa and had a very distinct accent. He continued, “Your act of kindness was much more than a simple good deed. Three people are alive today because of it.”
Let this sink in a bit .
Open the floor for possible discussion.