Giving as an Act of Worship
Series: Prove God Stewardship Series, Sermon (#3 of 3)
Chuck Sligh
January 28, 2014
This sermon is adapted from a sermon by Jeff Strite by the similar title at SermonCentral.com.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 3.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – In 21st Century Christian Magazine a mother told this story:
Our 3-year-old daughter was in the habit of giving half of her 2-quarter allowance to God each week. One Sunday we were out of town, so the next Sunday, we gave her an extra quarter to teach her about “making up” our giving when we miss.
She said, “Oh, good, I’ll give one for God and one for Jesus.”
We thought that was cute and didn’t think more about it until the following Sunday. When it was back to the regular allowance and she had only one quarter for the contribution, she started crying. We asked her what was wrong and she said, “Where’s the quarter for Jesus?”
Needless to say, she got an immediate raise in her allowance! We are waiting to see what happens when she finds out about the Holy Spirit.
That family was faithfully teaching their daughter a great truth: that giving is an act of worship. And that was what Solomon was teaching his son in our text in Proverbs 3.
Please rise this morning in honor of God’s Word as we read Proverbs 3:5-10 – “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 9 Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
Notice the words Solomon uses:
• In verse 6 he says, “in all thy ways ACKNOWLEDGE him.”
• In verse 9 he says, “HONOR the LORD with thy substance [that is, with your material wealth], with the firstfruits of all thine increase [that is, of your income].”
• Verse 5: “Trust in the LORD…”
In other words, what Solomon was teaching his son was that, in his worship, his financial gifts to God were the way he: acknowledged God, honored God and trusted God. Today as we finish out our three-part series on Stewardship, and as we challenge doubters of God’s promises to take our money back guarantee, I want us to focus on giving our tithes and offerings not out of mere duty, but as a willing act of worship to God.
I. LET’S START WITH THIS IDEA OF “ACKNOWLEDGING GOD” IN OUR GIVING.
Did you notice the work “firstfruits” in verse 9? What’s that mean?
This was written to an agricultural society where farmers and herdsmen paid most of their debts through the crops or livestock they raised Whenever a crop was harvested, a farmer would divide his harvest between what he would give to God as His 10% tithe; what he would give above tithe as a free-will offering to God; what was to be set aside for his family to live on if it were a human food crop, or otherwise what would go to feed his cattle or sheep; what would go for next year’s seed; and what was to pay any debts. The firstfruits was the FIRST part of the harvest—before the farmer set aside his crop for ANY OTHER PURPOSE.
The idea of giving God our firstfruits teaches two important truths about giving to God:
• First, it means that the FIRST of all your income should be set aside for God.
That is, you set aside the first 10% for God before you pay your bills, your food money or your funds for entertainment. God gets the FIRST and the BEST of our harvest.
• Second, it means that you PLAN what you’re going to give to God.
The farmer had to gather it all in, and he had co calculate his total harvest and then plan how to divvy up God’s part, his part, his debtors’ part. He did exactly what you do when you make a budget for the month. You calculate what goes to God first, then you divide the rest among the remainder of your bills and expenditures.
Illus. – I read this week about a bank in a small town in Oklahoma that had three churches with accounts with that bank. – Early one Monday morning, the bank called all three churches with the same request. “Could you bring in Sunday’s collection right away?” We’re out of one-dollar bills.”
Now, why could the bank be sure that there would be $1 bills in the offering?—Because many people DON’T PLAN AHEAD in their giving…they give God what they have in their pockets at the time.
Illus. – One wit observed: “One of the best tests of religion is to find yourself in church with nothing less than a 20 dollar bill in your wallet.”
That sounds good, but in reality, maybe really the best test of at least one aspect of your religion is if you’ve already cut the check for the offering plate when you got paid the week before, or you’ve already withdrawn the cash from the bank to put it in an offering envelope.
But I would say that it’s even deeper than that. The REAL test of your faith is whether you or God owns your wallet.
Illus. – Jesus wants you to acknowledge His right to rule your life. Many of Jesus’s parables about our relationship to Him revolve around the master-slave concept. To become a believer is to acknowledge that Jesus is our Master and we are His servants. In that day a master owned everything and a servant owned nothing.
[TAKE OUT WALLET AND HOLD IT UP] Is Jesus the Master of ALL you own?—Everything in your wallet, your bank account, your home, your car, your computer, your retirement, your deeds and titles of ownership.
Giving your firstfruits means you’re acknowledging God’s ownership of all you have.
• It means you’re NOT GIVING GOD YOUR LEFTOVERS—what’s left over at the end of the month after all your other expenditures.
• It means your gift to God is NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT. Your gift to God is something you’ve planned and scheduled.
I have an alarm in my iPhone calendar app that goes off every first day of the month. I have a note attached to it with my previous month’s calculation of my tithes and offerings that I use as a template for this month’s tithes and offerings. When that alarm goes off each month, that day I add up our income over the last 30 days, calculate the 10% tithe, round up to the nearest 50 dollars so we’re not nit-pickers with God, add to that our faith promise missions offering we committed to last March, and then add any other offerings we feel led to give to. After I calculate that month’s giving, I write the tithe check out, put it in an offering envelope and place it in my Bible to take to church the next Sunday.
Do you see what I’m doing? I’m figuring it all at the beginning of the month so that I’m giving God the FIRSTFRUITS of my income. I’m planning it out and being deliberate and intentional.
When you start to give God your firstfruits in a planned, intentional way like that, you’re beginning to learn the concept from Proverbs: “in all thy ways acknowledge Him.”
II. SECOND, WHEN YOU GIVE YOUR FIRSTFRUITS, YOU’RE HONORING GOD.
Illus. – This week I was reminded of an old movie Shenandoah, starring Jimmy Stewart, in which he opens the film with a prayer of thanksgiving for the meal. He calls the family in, makes the kids sit still, and then prays this prayer:“Lord, we plowed the field, we planted the field, we harvested the crop. We cooked it and put it on the table. It wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our hard work. But we thank you for it anyway. Amen.”
Was Stewart’s character honoring God?—No; in fact, he was mocking God. In his opinion, God wasn’t necessary; God was irrelevant.
Illus. – Contrast that attitude with what the Jews did when they celebrated the “Feast of Weeks” also known as the “Feast of Firstfruits”—or “Pentecost: On that special day, Israel brought in sheaths of grain to the Temple—the first crops gathered from their fields—and they presented them to the priests who would then take them and ceremonially “waive” them before the Lord. It was a big production, an elaborate ceremony. And this ceremony began a day of great feasting and celebration before God that they could bring their tithes of firstfruits in!
Scott Caudill, says that when the Israelites presented their gifts in this way they were making this statement: “God you’re so good, and God you’re so great, before we take any of this barley for ourselves, we want to first of all give it to you. And Lord we’re not going to give you our second best. And Lord we’re not going to give you what’s left over. Oh no! We’re going to give you our first fruits! Only the best is good enough for our great and wonderful God!”
What the Israelites were doing in this festival was HONORING GOD in their giving. They were declaring that God was worthy of praise in all that they gave that day.
And so it should be with us, which is one reason Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 – “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
We’ve discussed before in this series that the word “cheerful” literally means “hilarious.” It means one who gives eagerly, joyfully, thankfully, with a desire to honor God. So we’ve seen so far that tithing to God and giving Him free-will offerings above the tithe, are ways for us first to ACKNOWLEDGE God and secondly to HONOR God.
III. LASTLY, WHEN WE DO THAT, WE’RE SHOWING HOW MUCH WE TRUST HIM.
Illus. – The story’s told of a man who wanted to take his uncle on a plane ride. This was years ago, when planes were still a novelty. It was Uncle Dudley’s 75th birthday and his nephew said, “How would you like to go up with me?” Uncle Dudley agreed and they went up and circled the old man’s farm. When they got down, the nephew asked “Were you scared, Uncle Dudley?”v“No, but I never did put my full weight down.”
Too often, that’s how Christians approach God. We’re not so sure how much we trust God. We’re not sure how much we want to “put our weight down.”
And you know what: the proof of the pudding is in how we give to God. That’s why many people don’t plan ahead in their giving. They’re afraid that if they set aside a given amount for God before they pay their bills, they won’t have enough to live on that month.
Now, I understand that fear. It’s hard to make this step in your faith, especially the first time.
But I’m going to tell you something now that may sound cruel…and I apologize for that, but WHAT DOES THAT BEHAVIOR DECLARE (refusing to plan ahead in your giving because you’re afraid you’re not going to have enough to pay the bills)? It declares that your trust is in YOURSELF, not in God. It declares that you trust YOURSELF to supply all you’ll need to cover your expenses, but you don’t trust GOD to help you with that task.
Look again in our text at Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding”
• You say, “I don’t know if we can get by on 90%”—And God replies, “TRUST in the LORD with ALL thine heart.”
• You say, “It doesn’t make SENSE to me that if I give like I’m told to in verse 9 that instead of LOSING, I’ll be BLESSED like it promises in verse 10—And God says “…and lean not unto THINE OWN understanding.” You don’t have to figure it out; just believe God’s promise.
Planned giving is all about TRUST; it’s all about who and what you really believe.
The great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, said, “Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.”
Bob Perks said, “It’s one thing to say you believe in something, but so much more to prove it.”
CONCLUSION
And that’s exactly what I’m challenging you to do today—to PROVE GOD.
Let’s go to one last scripture this morning: Malachi 3:8-11 – “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein [or “How”] have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. [I realize that this was under the Mosaic law; but the New Testament challenges believers to go beyond the requirements of the law] 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. [God took their refusal to acknowledge and honor and trust Him personally—so much so that He cursed them because they stopped tithing and giving offerings to God. He continues…] 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.”
Here’s the challenge: God says, “Prove me. Give me your tithes and offerings and test me and see if I will not bless you in wonderful ways. Bring them to the storehouse of the temple so that the needs of the temple and the work of God is fully funded and the priests are properly fed and provided for and watch what I will do in your life!”
And my question to you today is: Do you really believe God would do that?—That He would bless you and rebuke the devourer who seeks to destroy you? I mean…do you REALLY believe that?—If so, put your money where your mouth is.
If you’re already a tither but have been wavering because of some big financial giants in your life now, I challenge you to be faithful and hold out and watch God bless you as He promised. – Remember, the harvest is always a while after the planting.
If you don’t tithe and you want to prove God’s promise, I have this challenge for you: As you entered the sanctuary this morning, you should have been given a “money back guarantee” which is our guarantee that if you tithe faithfully for six months and you do not feel God has fulfilled His promise to bless you, you can come to me privately and ask for your money back and we’ll cut a check immediately, no questions asked. In order to do this, you must 1) sign the guarantee and turn it in to us, and 2) always pay by check or offering envelope so we can have a record of your giving.
If you’re a convinced, regular tither already, I have a challenge to you too: I challenge you to INCREASE your giving amount in the next year. The New Testament principle is “grace giving”: voluntary giving as God has prospered you. If He’s blessed you financially, I challenge you to give a faith promise missions commitment above your tithe or give other free-will offerings to God.
[HAVE CONGREGATION BOW THEIR HEADS AND FILL OUR THEIR SHEETS IF THEY WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. THEN CLOSE IN PRAYER.]
