House Rules (4 Of 4, Stewardship)

Today – conclude the series on Stewardship.

* First sermon – God owns everything we have. God gave us the responsibility to manage his resources.

* Second sermon – Stewardship of time

* Third sermon – Stewardship of talents (gifts)

* Today – Stewardship of treasures (money)

Don’t leave! I haven’t started yet! I am simply going to allow God to speak His Word to our hearts. We’ll look at what the passage says to us and then you and I need to decide what we should do about it.

We will be looking at a lot of Scripture. Have your Bible ready. Take notes if you wish, although you can find the whole sermon on our website at www.sakcc.com. At the very least write down your questions that you can study later on your own time.

House rules – the blessing and curse of daily life. Pick up your socks. Brush your teeth. Mow the lawn. Take out the garbage. Set the table. Walk the dog. “Seriously Dale, you’re worst than the girls" laments my weary lady! Well, not really!

We’re not fond of rules but we understand we need them. Without rules we would be a 21st century version of the Dark Ages or maybe only as bad as the Wild, Wild West era.

Tithing lessons:

1. GOD ESTABLISHED THE TITHING HOUSE RULES

Tithing: the tenth part of agricultural produce or personal income set apart as an offering to God (dictionary.com)

God created rules to establish us because the alternative is chaos and anarchy. Let’s explore a few of God’s house rules.

a. Leviticus 23:10

When God restored the people to identity as a nation, his nation, he instituted the act of first fruits giving.

This offering – a single sheaf of grain offered to the priest represented the entire harvest. The people gave this offering before they could eat any of the harvest. One source notes, “In this rite they show that all they possess also belongs to {God}. This would remind us that we are not free to spend our own energies, abilities or income first upon ourselves and then, if there is a surplus, share with the Lord. Our first-fruits belong to God. *Kingdom interests have priority. **All we are and have belongs to God. We are but stewards.” (Wesleyan Commentary, p. 355)

*Luke 12:31, “Seek his kingdom and these things {food and clothing} will be added to you.”

**Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’S and all it contains.”

**Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies” – not the physical body but the entirety of ourselves as people. As John Gill exposition states, “presenting of them, designs a devoting of them, with all readiness and willingness, to the service of God for his honour and glory.”

b. Leviticus 27:30-32

31 – “If a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it.” – if a person wanted to keep the livestock or crops that should be tithed they could do so but only by giving money to replace the original tithe and they were required to add another 20% of its value in exchange for the item they wished to keep.

E.g. Many people have known, though they can’t explain it, that when they began tithing to God, they had resources that never existed before and they can’t explain how it works – but it works. They have more than before they tithed.

Hold out on God’s tithe and the decision costs us more in the long run.

32 – “Passes under the rod” – e.g. a shepherd counting off his sheep, passing through single file, would count to ten and every tenth sheep was set aside for God.

Our giving to God should not be a mindless impulsive response to him. The lesson here teaches that our giving should be systematic, deliberate, intentional, and carefully though through. Not only that, but it should be proportionate to the income we receive.

* Concerns – giving sporadic, ill-prepared…

The most crippling time for the church is summer time and vacations. People are traveling and spend their tithe, or drop it in a church they are visiting. Too many come home and having been away for weeks over the summer, have no sense of obligation to “make up” the shortfall in their giving. The tithe is still the Lord’s. The rules don’t change because we’re on vacation.

c. Numbers 18:26 – “tithe of the tithe”

Tithing is so important that it reaches into the thinking and disciplines of formal church structure.

E.g. our church tithes on the tithe, to Divisional Headquarters. DHQ tithes to Territorial HQ and THQ to International HQ. IHQ tithes back to the ministries around the world.

Another Biblical example of tithing on the tithe is found in Deut 14:28 and Deut 26:12 – God had instructed that every third year, the people were to tithe on the tithe to give to those without, for the good of the community. (Read Deut 26:12…)