Worship Is A Verb Part 8
Scripture: Psalm 96:8; Deut. 16:17; 2 Cor. 8:3-5; 9:11-14; Malachi 3:8-12
Introduction
In my message on last week, I shared with you the importance of the music ministry in our worship service. As you may recall, the music should not over shadow the worship, nor should it be viewed as a requirement for worship to take place. The music, as with all things pertaining to our worship of God, starts in our hearts. We should not require musical instruments in order to enter into worship; we can make music flow from our hearts. This morning we will dig deeper into another area of worship that I mentioned earlier in this series and that is giving. Although there are many things we give to God during our worship services such as giving Him glory, praise and strength, this morning I will focus strictly on finances.
The trustees made a request last year that I do a sermon series on giving so that the Church would understand its importance. You see, they know every penny that comes into this Church and unless you give cash without an envelope, they know every person who is supporting this Church and worshiping God with their finances. All of you know that I am not a pastor who spends any time begging for money or beating you over the head about what you give. I purposely keep a distance from the finances of the Church because I think it can be a conflict for me to know what any of you are giving. As long as I do not know, I can go about thinking that all of you support the Church to the best of your ability. But although I am not one who focuses on your money, this message will bother some of you because I will be very clear about what it means to worship God with our finances. And one point you need to take away from this message if you do not remember anything else is this – some of us are in the financial situation we are in because we refuse to honor God and worship Him with our finances. Now, having said that, as always, what you give is between you and God and I will leave it at that.
A. Worship Involves Giving
There are a lot of people who give very little to the work of God. They do not tithe to their Church; they do not give in the offering for their Church (although they will give to other Churches); they do not give to the poor; or give anything to help others. This same individual who give chooses not to worship God with their finances, are the first ones in line to come to the Church when they have a need. They are the first ones in line to want their kids participating in something that the Church is funding. They are the first ones in line to make recommendations about how the Church should budget its money. They are the first ones who suggest ways in which the Church can use its finances to help those who are in need. They are the first ones to tell when the finances are not being used “right” by the Church. There are many Pastors who hold the opinion that if you do not worship God with your finances (tithings) then you do not have a voice in how those finances are use. I was a member of a Church once where they kept records of who tithed and who didn’t and you could not get counseling from the Pastor if you did not tithe. Rev. Fulks told the story about a Pastor who told a woman she’d lost her baby because she did not tithe. Although I do not believe this, let me tell you what I do believe:
Something Is Wrong With That Picture When you have taken more money from the Church (in the form of benevolent offerings) than you have given to the Church. If you received your giving statement in January and you gave less than $52 dollars to your Church, that’s one dollar a Sunday, and you have a job, something is wrong with that picture. If the kids of the Church who receive an allowance from their parents give more to God than the adults who are working full time, something is wrong with that picture. If you worship McDonald’s and eating out more with your finances than you do God, something is wrong with that picture. If you worship the boats and the slot machines with your finances more than you worship God, something is wrong with that picture. Understand this; your worship of God involves you giving of your finances. If everyone was like these people and took more from the Church than they gave, the Church would never exist nor would they ever be able to take care of their true ministry – preaching and teaching Christ and reaching out to those who are lost. As I shared with the class on Wednesday evening, we can fast and pray from dusk to dawn that God will provide us with a permanent building, but if we do not worship Him with our finances, it still will not happen. Let’s examine what the Bible says about worshiping God with our finances.
B. Scriptural Proof For Worshiping God With Finances
Psalms 96:8 says “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts.” Worship is about giving, giving to God from a heart of love and adoration, giving of self, giving of talent, giving praise, giving up ambitions, giving strength and giving of your finances.
Proverbs 3:9 says “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce.” Solomon says that we should “honor” God from our wealth and from our first fruit. Do you understand what this is saying? We should give to God first – before we spend the rest on ourselves. Your first fruit is not what you have leftover, it is what you have at the beginning. For example, if you get a paycheck for $200 – the $200 represents your first fruits. If you pay your mandatory bills and you have $100 left over and then you decide that you need $95 dollars because there is some eating out and some shopping you need to do so you only have $5 to give to worship God with, that $5 is not from your first fruit. That $5 represents your leftovers after you have spent what you wanted to spend on yourself. So in reality you are coming to God in worship with your finances, with a $5, leftover gift of worship. You are worshiping the God who sustains you; the God who you cry out to in prayer when you have a need; the God you give credit to for all of your blessings; the God with whom you will spend all eternity with; with a $5 leftover offering of worship. Some of us are in the financial situation we are in because we refuse to honor God with our finances. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 16:17.
Deuteronomy 16:17 says “Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.” Some of you may be saying “I do give the best that I can” but what you really mean is that I give after I have over spent on the things that I want. We could give more, if we spent less on things that does not impact our eternity. We should worship God with our giving as God has blessed us, not based on what we can afford after we have spent the greatest portion on ourselves. You see, there should be a direct correlation between what God blesses me with and what I choose to give back to Him. The more I have – before I spend – the more I can give to His work. Those funds can be used to accomplish things I could never do alone. Now turn to 1 Chronicles 29:1-3 for an example of this.
1 Chronicles 29:1-3 says “Then King David said to the entire assembly, ‘My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is still young and inexperienced and the work is great; for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God. Now with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, onyx stone and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and stones of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones and alabaster in abundance. Moreover, in my delight in the house of my God, the treasure I have of gold and silver, I give to the house of my God, over and above all that I have already provided for the holy temple.” Here we find David making provisions for the temple to be built for his God. He lists all of the “gifts” that he had already given and then he added to it. Some of us give $1000 to the Church and think we have done something. David gave all he could and when he had given that, he gave more. Why did he do this? Because he loved God! He worshipped God with his finances because he recognized that everything he had came from God. Did you notice how he referred to the temple as the “house for my God.” He was staking a claim in his relationship to God. He professed that God was his God. David consecrated himself and his people and successfully led God’s people to give to the Lord (vs. 5). The key to their commitment to give was their heart, whatever they decided to give in order to build the temple, they gave voluntarily and from the heart.
New Testament principles for giving and corporate worship are not at all unlike those practiced by King David when you read the rest of that chapter. In the New Testament, all giving is from the heart. First, giving is from a sincere heart and not grudgingly, or of necessity. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:7. It says “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Look at the requirement. They were to give as they had already purposed in their hearts. The giving starts in the heart. I have had several conversations with the teenagers around them giving 10% of their allowance or their pay if they have a job and they are quick to throw it up in my face that I teach they should give from the heart. They have told me on many occasions that they should be able to keep their money if they really do not want to give it and in truth they are 100% correct. But you cannot take part of the word and apply and leave the other alone. In this verse it says God loves a cheerful giver – but how does He feel about the “un-cheerful” giver? I think you can figure this one out.
Second, giving is with a heart of surrender to God. Now look at 2 Corinthians 8:3-5. It says “For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.” Understand what happened here. Here were people who wanted to give in support of the saints and they gave beyond their ability to give. You ever heard someone say “give until it hurts”? That is what they did – they gave until it hurts. But examine why they gave. They gave because of their love of God – this was worship to them. Verse five said that they gave themselves to the Lord first and it was after this that they wanted to give of their wealth in worship to God. They had surrendered to God first then they had a desire to worship Him with their finances. You will not worship God with your finances if you have not surrendered to Him. If you are only worshiping God with your leftover finances, I hope that God does not answer your prayer only when He has nothing else more important to do. He does not treat us as we treat Him.
The third principle is that our giving should be with a spirit of unselfishness and sharing. We read this earlier in 2 Corinthians 8:3-5. They had a desire to worship God with their finances but it was borne out of a desire to help the saints. There are many Christians out there who will refer a member to come to the Church for help instead of them digging deep in their own pockets to help the one in need. There are others Christians out there who abuse the Church and think it is their own ATM machine. When the body of Christ surrenders to God and begins to give unselfishly to the work, things can get done. But when we consider what we give in comparison to others and begin to think that we do not have to do more unless others step up to the plate, then our worship is flawed. Worshiping God with our finances has nothing to do with what others do, but has everything to do with what is in our hearts.
The last principle is that our giving should be with a heart of thanksgiving. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:11-14. It reads “You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings top God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all. While they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.” By giving of our stuff, others are blessed, God is glorified and the gospel of Jesus Christ is advanced. Herein lies the thanksgiving – because the gospel of Christ is advanced. Also consider this. I can worship God in my giving with thanksgiving because I can remember when I did not have much, yet God sustained me and I continued to give. I can remember when things were tight and I borrowed from Paul to pay Peter, yet I continued to give and God always brought me through. The little that I give to God cannot begin to compare to what He gives to me and for this I am truly thankful.
Worshiping God with our finances starts in our hearts. How we align our hearts around our finances will determine how we will choose to worship God in our giving. If we view our money as ours, something we worked hard for and something God does not need, we will justify our unwise use of it and even though we may make a $100,000 a year, we will live paycheck to paycheck and one payment away from being homeless. This is not God’s desire for us. When we turn our finances and our hearts to God and begin to worship Him with our finances, then even though I make $20,000 a year, my bills are paid and I have money in the bank and can help others because God gives me wisdom as to how to use what he has blessed me with. I will close with a very familiar verse of Scripture that is actually not always used appropriately as it pertains to tithing, but speaks to the heart of God as it pertains to our worshiping Him with our finances. Turn to Malachi 3:8-12, the last book of the Old Testament.
Malachi 3:8-12 says “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes, says the Lord of hosts. All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts.” Some have used this Scripture to tell anyone who does not tithe that they are robbing God and God is cursing them. I am not telling you that this morning, but what I am telling you is this: understand how God sees your tithes and offerings. Giving a tithe should be the beginning of where we start measuring our giving. In the New Testament Church, they gave all so that there was enough for everyone. But let me share with you the point from Malachi. When you read the entire book, you will find that God admonished the priests first for failing to do their jobs as priest; then he admonishes the people, especially the men, for the way in which they treated their wives – committing adultery and divorcing them. His blessings were being withheld because of the sin. Then God admonishes the whole nation because they were failing to provide for the priest with their tithes. Remember, during this time the priests could not work outside of the ministry so they existed by what the farmers and other brought to the Church. Those who were not farmers would bring a tenth of what they earned from whatever vocation they were in. The priests would then use what was brought in for themselves and to help those in need. The priest’s role was to ensure that the spiritual and physical needs of the people were met and they could only do this through the tithes and offerings of the people. When the people did not bring the “whole” tithes, the Church suffered and God was not pleased. But notice what God said – He told the people to “test Me” or to “try Me” and He would prove to them what He would do, if they were faithful in their giving. He would bless them by rebuking the devourer. This means that they would literally have something to show for what they earned – they would not live by what we call – paycheck to paycheck and being one payment away from being homeless. This is what God desires to do for each of us. You would be wise to go back and study this for yourself.
May God bless and keep you and may your wealth become a point of worship between you and God so that your devourer will be rebuked.
(This series is based on the book "the Dynamics of Corporate Worship" by Vernon M. Whaley)
