Eccl.11:1-6 2 Corinthians. 8:1-12 9:6-9
Some people ask, “Well
did Jesus ever tell us to tithe.” Look at Luke 11:42 Jesus was having a conversation with
these guys one day and he said, "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give
God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you
neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without
leaving the former undone.”
What was Jesus is saying to them, fellows when it comes to
paying tithes, you tithe on everything you get and that’s good, but remember
you also have to practice justice and show others the love of God. You should
have done these two things, along with your paying tithes. Paying tithes is not paid in our service to the church or to
others. We are to excel in both our service and our giving. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 8:7 “But
just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete
earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of
giving.”
We need to see ourselves, not as owners of wealth but as
bank managers. A bank manager knows that money that is in the bank belongs to
someone else. The manager is allowed to do some things with some of the money,
but the money belongs to the person who has deposited it in the bank. Every week, God deposits different amounts of money in our
banks. God is very generous in the way He allows us to use His money. Would you
take your money to the bank and say” now 10% of this money I always want to
claim, but use the other 90% of my money in a very productive way? Spend some
of it on yourself if you like” Not many of would allow chase such freedom.
Now one day, Jesus is going to ask us to give an account of
all the money that He gave to us, not just the 10% but the 90% as well. Let’s
imagine entering into the courtroom of heaven. All the saints are standing
around, and we go before Jesus to see how we did with what was put in our care.
Jesus looks at us and He shows us his hands and his side to remind us of the
price he paid for us to be saved. He then says, “I came to seek and to save those who were
lost, how did you help in my mission? How much did you use to spread the
gospel, to feed the hungry, to help the homeless, to care for the sick, and to
remember those in prison?”
How many of us are planning on saying, “Lord you know I did the best I could.” I’m not a lawyer but I’m not sure I would use that line
of defense. I’m not trying to be abrasive today; Do you realize that if
this is going to be our line of defense, our first words spoken to Jesus will
be a lie?” Do we actually plan to try to lie our way out of how poorly we
managed what God gave to us? The best time to prepare for that day is now. When we say “I can’t afford to tithe, let’s be honest
with God and with ourselves. What we’re really saying, is the decisions I have
made for my choice of lifestyle requires that I spend up the money God told me
to set aside.”
God will never allow us to use the excuse, “I could not afford it.”
No the reality is we could not afford that home, or that
car, or that vacation, or that dress, or that place to eat, or that furniture,
or that savings plan, or that brand of clothes, or that school, or that
apartment or that neighborhood, or that jewelry, or that amount of savings or
whatever it was.
Some of us are in so
much debt because of either greed or some unfortunate experience in our lives
that we cannot make ends meet. Does God expect you to start tithing
tomorrow? No, but God expect you to begin to make changes today in your
lifestyle, so that you can become faithful in this area of your life as well. What would you be willing to let go of, if all of a sudden
you lost your job and your income was half of what it is now. Well those are
the kinds of things we need to examine if are serious about getting our lives
in spiritual order. That’s why we believe in courses like Dave Ramsey or Crown
financial. They give you the tools to be successful in this spiritual area of
your life. (Commercial: Dave Ramsey class
starting this month)
Tithing is never a
matter of the amount of money we make. It is always a matter of how much do we
appreciate what God has done for us and how important it is being in the will
of God. God never intended for tithing to be a means to keep
people poor. Tithing was both a means to support the work of Jesus Christ for
the church and means to a step of faith in being blessed by God in a number of
areas in our individual lives. Tithing teaches what it means to be grateful to
God.
People all the time ask God to bless them. But the issue is,
“are you bless able by God.” We do
not know how many blessings we have missed out on because we used our money as
we wanted to rather than according to God’s plan for it and for us. Have you
already shown God you can be faithful in the little areas of life? When we
actively live in disobedience to God’s will for our lives, we are not bless
able by God. For
the Scripture tells us everyone the Lord loves, the Lord disciplines to get
back on the right track.
All God did was send Jesus along to love us. Christ provides us with new life here on earth and eternal
life beyond. He pays for our salvation with His own life. He forgives our sins
and gives us purpose. He then turns around and tells us, “come and use what you
have that I might save others.”
It’s okay to give because you believe you’re going to get
something back. That’s just one of God’s promises. But it is a much higher form of giving when we say; Lord I can never
repay my debt to you, but I do just want to say Thank You. You are loved!
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