Corner posts
Building on a strong foundation
Part 3
Today we are going to continue with our on-going sermon series titled corner posts of our faith
As most of you know
When we build anything
We must build on a solid foundation
I like to use the illustration of a fence
Because it paints a good visual for most of this church
We know about fences
Many of us have built fences
And every one of us drove past fences on the way here
Some of those fences were nice
Tight
Straight
Others were in disrepair
And in my Cowboy mind
These fences remind me of our faith
And good fences if they are to withstand the test of time
like our faith
Must be built with strong corners
Listen
Nothing about fence building is easy
And nothing about building our faith is easy
But some parts are harder than others- right?
Sometimes
Even though we must work hard
A post is set with not a lot of extra effort
We simply dig the holes
Tamp the concrete and dirt
Set our cross braces and cross wires
And presto
A strong corner
Other times we must work a lot harder
We need the corner right here for the fence to be right
But there is a big rock
Or tree roots
Or something that gets in the way
Something that tries to keep us from setting this corner
We can improvise
Or we can put our minds and our backs into it and do it right
It won’t be easy
But it will be worth it
Today’s corner post of our faith
Is not easy
Not by a long shot
This corner post is imperative if we want to receive all God has for us
Imperative if we want to live an obedient life
We are going to use several passages of scripture this morning
but
Let’s start out with Philippians 4:19
19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Paul is thanking the church at Philippi for their generosity
And in the process
He gives us two of the most loved verses in all of scripture
Verses 19
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus
And verse 13
13 For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength.
Paul in just a couple of verses gives us good
Strong principals for living an obedient life in Christ
And
Receiving strength from God through Christ to get through this life
These verses are not about our strength
Our power
But his
I can do all things through Christ – who gives me HIS strength
And
I know that the same God
Who provided for me
Will provide for you
Your needs
According to HIS riches, not our riches
So, my question for you this morning is
Do you believe this
Do you believe that with Christ all things are possible?
That through his strength and power
Not ours
We can accomplish great things
In our own lives
In the lives of others
In the church
And in the kingdom
Do you believe this?
Next question
Do you believe that God like Paul says?
Will provide
All of your needs
According to his riches
Once again
According to his His strength
According to his His power
According to his His glory
According to his His will
Do you believe this?
I am so glad to hear the amen’s
See the nods
And the smiles
We serve a God
Who loves us and gives us the strength
And the ability
To accomplish his will
And who provides for our needs
But
Always a but right
Many in this world
Many in this room
Myself included at one time in my life
Say we believe this
We print this on-t shirts
Memorize and quote Paul’s words
But we live like we don’t
Believe it
Because we don’t give
We don’t trust God with every area of our life
Generous giving is a corner post of our faith
Tithing
Offerings
Serving
All are part of the foundations of a strong
Growing
Maturing
Faith in Christ
And if you have not already figured it out
The message for today
Concerns one of the hardest topics in the church
Money
There are some that will leave here today
Saying all that Preacher talks about is money
And I urge you to be honest
All this preacher talks about is the bible
My Job is to teach
This church each of you
How to use God’s word in their lives
How to use God’s word to increase their faith
How to use God’s word to grow in spiritual maturity
How to use God’s word to receive the blessings that God has planned out for each of his children
My job is not to beg for money
My job is not to brow beat you
My job is not to make you feel guilty
My job is to simply lay out the facts of God’s word
To honestly
And fully teach his word
Without apology or regret
As Paul said In Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile
It is simply my job to teach
And then allow the Holy Spirit that lives in you-- to do the convicting
So, let me just go ahead and step on some toes from the word
Not giving
Not tithing
Is not trusting God
Not trusting that he will provide all of your needs according to his riches
Not tithing is not trusting God
Not trusting that he will give you the strength to endure and over come
All things
Not giving closes the doors on God’s blessings in your life
Not giving hobbles you in your spiritual growth and in your walk with Christ
I know now I have offended some of you
Listen
I am simply the messenger
If you have issues
Please take them up with my boss
Listen to me
I really need you to hear this
I have worked for many men in my life
From ranch foremen
To fire captains
Some I respected for the position they held
Others for who they were
But
I will tell you the ones I respected the most
Were the ones who would do and had done
What they were asking me to do
So
While I believe in my heart that what we give is between us and God
And I do not know what each of you give
Nor do I want to know
I want you to know
That I tithe
I believe in my heart that I am called to do that
I trust God to provide for my needs and he does
And I receive the blessings for my obedience
And I will also tell you
That it was not until I surrendered all to him
My heart
My soul
My mind
And my wallet
That I truly started receiving the peace and contentment he has for each of us
It was then and only then
That I started getting the god things he had for me
I did not tell this to brag
Or to make you respect me
I only told you this
So you will understand
That is my love for you
And my desire for each of you to walk in obedience
That I share today’s message
So today I am going to share from both the Old and New testament about this hard topic of giving
First let me say
There are many in the world who claim that Tithing is an old testament command and is no longer valid
I disagree
Jesus said he came to fulfil the law not abolish it
What that means is he upped the ante
Raised the bar
The Old Testament says thou shall not kill
Jesus says if you are angry with your brother – if you have hate in your heart it is the same thing
The Old testament says thou shall not commit adultery
Jesus says looking at someone with lust in your eyes is the same thing
The Old testament said a sacrifice was needed to pay for sin
Blood was required
And Jesus
Made the ultimate sacrifice
The last one needed
With his blood
He raised the bar
Jesus says it’s all about our hearts
Jesus says love the Lord – your God with all your heart- souls – and mind
And love your neighbor as yourself
And he says if you love me
If you love me he says
Follow my commands
Do what I say
The book of Malachi
Chapter 3
Gives us God’s words on tithing and the blessing it brings
Let me let his words speak to you
Malachi 3:6-12
6 “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. 7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
“But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’
8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.[a] Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
God though the prophet Malachi
Tells the people
I am God
I have not changed
My word is true
My commands are valid
And I want to bless you for your obedience
But you won’t let me
Because you don’t trust me
The bible calls us in many places to tithe in both the Old and New Testament and the word tithe its self means 10%.
10% is generally considered as a proper tithe and most churches teach this principle.
Some churches even ask their members to pledge to tithe on their income; some go so far as to ask for paycheck stubs and will go to great lengths to get people to give the 10%
Some churches have you fill out cards stating your promise and some even have the gall to call and harass those who do not keep their pledge or get behind
We are not going to do that here.
What you give is between you and God and that is one reason we do not pass the plate in cowboy church
I can just imagine some here actually smiling, thinking to themselves that those old preachers always told us 10% and boy we have finally found a place that does not hold to that teaching.
Well I hate to upset your apple cart
But I must
I told you Jesus came to up the ante
To raise the bar
So I really hate to pop your balloon, to burst your bubble
First because I truly believe that we are called to tithe
I truly believe that everything we have is a gift from God and that we as
And I believe we are to tithe- give
an act of Worship
an Act of Obedience
an act of love
and as an act of thankfulness
but 10% is not the magic number for me and I do not stand on the belief that it should be 10%,
I think 10% should be the starting point. God blesses those who are obedient with what he gives them, and if he is blessing you, you may need to tithe, 20%, 30% maybe more.
Ok now I am getting personal, now I have got your attention.
Let me tell you about Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried chicken fame
He vowed to give 50% of all proceeds from his chicken recipe to God, and you may say well he has plenty anyway
Let me bust another bubble he was living in his car when he made that pledge and because of his faithfulness God blessed him beyond his wildest dreams.
The gospel writers tell of a little boy with a couple of fish and a few loaves who gave all he had
The Old testament tells of a widow giving all she has
These and many more laid all they had down and let The Lord take what he needed
None of them had much but each gave it all.
What did The Lord do in every case?
He took that little gift, that gift of everything and did great things with it.
He multiplied their gifts
To overflowing
Make no mistake God does not need your money and I am not up here to beg for God
We do not work on commission
It all already belongs to him anyway, he just lets us use it.
What he wants is your obedience;
What he wants is your trust
He wants all of you, he wants your best not your leftovers.
How we think of our money makes the difference as to how tight we hold to it.
Money is one of two things; it is either an idol or a tool.
Money is important to God because it is important to you..
He wants to be the center of your life not an afterthought to you
and will not compete with any idol, one of which is money if that is where your heart lies.
Money is the root of all evil is a misquote
what the bible tells us is this
1 Timothy 6:6-10
6 Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7 After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
9 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Money like many other things in this world can begin to own you, to make you it’s slave and take your focus off of God.
When you put your focus on your money it begins to possess you instead of the other way around.
Anything that comes between you and the Lord is a bad thing. The first and second commandment talks about this.
Exodus 20:3-4
3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. And Matthew talks about how it will rule us if we let it
Matthew 6:21-24
21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money
On a personal level
I can assure you the concept of tithing is a hard concept and it is often one that we hope not to hear or even think about , but once again on a personal level do you have enough faith to let God
show you how much he can bless you?
Do you trust that he will provide?
That he will give you the strength
Looking at the verses in Malachi again in chapter
, God says in verse 10
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.[a] Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
Listen
We need to tithe our time just like our money. God needs our time so that he can teach us, and recreate us into what he wants us to be
Let me talk hard to the believers in the room today, there is a lot of misunderstanding about tithing and many people do not fully understand
Listen to me
I am not asking you to tithe
I am not asking you for one single dime
I am asking for you to pray
I am asking you to study the word
I am asking you to let God show you the truth from his word
and when he does I am asking you to take a step of faith
I am asking you to dare God to bless you, you will not be disappointed.
Believers
Church members
if you are not tithing you are missing so many of the blessings that God has planned for you.
He wants to bless you
do have faith enough to let him?
I could tell you story after story of myself and others who have taken the step, I can tell you great stories of blessings beyond dreams.
You need to remember though that the heart of the gift is what makes the gift, if you are tithing with a motive to receive blessings or with a grievous heart you would be better off to just keep it.
God wants willingness, he loves a cheerful giver.
If you are a guest here today, if you feel led to give an offering, I pray that God will bless you for it and I know he will,
but we are not asking for it, we are not expecting it.
You’re being here has already blessed us.
If you are here today, visiting or maybe you have been coming for a while and you do not know Jesus,
if you have never accepted his payment, then do not let any of this money stuff even concern you.
Tithing is an act of obedience by believers and you cannot be obedient until you are his kid
until you accept Jesus as your savior none of this tithing stuff matters
What matters is getting a personal one on one relationship with the Savior of the World.
You can work on the tithing part when you have secured salvation.
I want to wrap up with this thought
When we hold on to what we have with a tight closed fist, no one can take anything out, but God cannot put anything in either
when we hold on tight to what we have that may be all we ever have
But if we open our hand and let God Take what he wants he also can put back what we need and what he wants us to have.
Close from the heart
Pray
