Theme: Tithe and Me
Text: Malachi 3:8-10
Today, I am going to touch your pocket. I would make you open your valet. But if I want to succeed in my attempt, I have to touch your heart. If your mind is convinced, it will command your heart and hands to work together and obey God and Honour God. I have posted 284 sermons in the Sermon Central for the benefit of Preachers around the world. I have 6.5 Lakh viewers from 185 countries. While I was searching in my storage of the sermons, I couldn’t find a sermon I spoke exclusively on Tithe, and It is my first attempt to talk on TITHE.
Give your Tithe of your time
Give Tithe of your income
Give your First Born to Yahweh
1. Give the tithe of your time
The world is full of inequalities. Highs and valleys, ups and downs, fortunate and unfortunates, rich and poor, etc., but one thing we all have in common is the same amount of time each day. God has given twenty-four hours to all of us. The ruler, the labour, the businessmen and the idle person have the same amount of time. We are familiar with words like rush hour, peak hour, urgent time, priority time, time pressures and leisure time.
Christians can either use the valuable time or waste their time as useless. Time has become a tyrant ruler instead of a loving friend. “Developing vital relationships with people is tremendously time-consuming and, because of our utilitarian or production-oriented mindset, we tend to economise our commitment to spending the time needed to develop deep relationships with family and friends.”(ref: Bible.org/stewardship of time).
According to the Bible Dictionaries, the Hebrew words used for time are et, moed, iddan, Zeman, yom and the Greek words are kairos, Chronos, aion. Bible has three kinds of time as measurable occurrence, immeasurable, and fixed time.
The OT word et refers to the instant or duration of time during which something occurs (1 Samuel 9:16, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, time for everything, 2 Chronicles 24:11 routine every day). The word, mo`ed, means ‘fixed time’ time designated for a specific occurrence like a festival or appointed time (Leviticus 23:2, 4). In NT we have the concept of ‘kairos’ means chronological and not ‘decisive moment’ (Luke 19:44, Acts 17:26, Titus 1:3, 1 Peter 1:11). It is not a cyclical time but a linear time.
God is Lord over time, he is not limited with time (Psalm 90:4). He is transcendent over time (Genesis 1:14). Time is meaningfully forward-moving. The covenants God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jeremiah illustrate that history reveals a progressive unveiling of God's redemptive plan for humanity. Prophetic fulfilment, according to God's appointed times, does so as well.
Human beings are allotted their appointed period; the Lord gives, and He takes away (Job 1:21). God controls human destiny (Psalm 31:15, 139:16). Time is a great resource like money for human beings. We calculate the day from 12 is to midnight. Whereas counting of days for a Jew is from Sunrise to Sunset or Sunset to Sunrise (Genesis 1:5).
So remembering and redeeming or using times is very important as mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:1, Ephesians 5:15-16, Colossians 4:5. Does it mean the numbering days is merely counting the number of days and years? Know the times and their consequences (Romans 13:11-14). He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Bible gives us some of the best examples of men and women who understood their blessings and numbering of their days; for ex., Queen Esther (Esther 4:13-14) and Prince Joseph (Genesis 50:20), Cupbearer Nehemiah turn to be a builder of the Walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:4). Evangelist Philip was brought to the wilderness to explain the Word of God to an Ethiopian Eunuch, and he heard the Gospel, saved and was baptised (Acts 8:26-39).
Numbering our days also means evaluating the quality of our time spent. The amount of time we spend at something is often not as significant as the quality of the time spent. Not only must we consider where our time goes, but how we spend it and why. Do you take time for God’s Word? When you spend time with your family, is your mind and heart somewhere else? Are you distracted When in worship?
Jesus woke up early in the morning for prayer (Mark 1:35). Prophet Ezekiel received the word of God early in the morning (Ezekiel 12:8). David had the habit of calling the Lord every early morning (Psalm 5:3, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 88:13). Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning (Psalm 143:8). People came early in the morning to Him in the temple to hear Him (Luke 21:38).
2. The tithe of your income
For the first time, the word Tithe is recorded in Genesis 14:20 as Abram gave a tenth of everything. Then we find Jacob made a vow to pay tithe to the Lord in Genesis 28:20-22, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Moses for the first time speaks out on Tithe as per the command of God given in mount Sinai found in Leviticus 27:30-34: ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. Whoever would redeem any of their tithes must add a fifth of the value to it. Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the LORD.” These are the commands the LORD gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.
The tithe is the exclusive property of the Levites, Levitical ministry support of the Pastors, ministers and servants of God working in the tabernacle. Deuteronomy 12:6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
God instructed them on how to use the Tithe after crossing the Jordan (Deuteronomy 12:6-11). God gave instructions on how to disperse and exchange the tithe ( Deuteronomy 14:22-29). God instructed on how Israel should sanctify the tithe before they can ask for a blessing (Deuteronomy 26:12-15). The children of Israel brought Tithe to the designated place during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:5-12).
The Postexilic community brought the Tithe to the storehouse as a sign of obedience (Nehemiah 10:37-38).
Prophet Amos pronounced that holding the Tithe is a curse (Amos 4:4). Prophet Malachi challenged the congregation to test the faithfulness of God by paying Tithe (Malachi 3:8-10). Jesus condemned the Pharisees for not obeying the command including Tithe (Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42).
The tithe belongs to God and enjoys grace. Give your Tithe to the Church and more to the Missions and social concerns.
3. The Tithe of your Kids
Nehemiah 10:36-37 “As it is also written in the Law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, of our herds and our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests ministering there”.
Abraham gave his son to the Lord (Genesis 22:2-11). Abraham took his Son and sacrificed him. He knew that God never takes for himself either money or a child. He knows the larger plan of God. Give your child to God. See your care for him as a steward, as serving God’s purpose in the child’s life. You are a missionary on a mission to this child for God. Unless we give ourselves to the Lord, we can’t give our children to God.
Hannah gave her son to the Lord when he was young (1 Samuel 1:21-18).
Exodus 13:2, God says, “Consecrate every firstborn male to me, the firstborn from every womb among the Israelites, both man and domestic animal; it is mine.”
David could not hold the misfortunes of his Sons. Amnon was killed. Absalom was killed, Adonijah was killed. Full of distress and last the joy of the family. Where there is no family prayer, where children are allowed to live as they like, where kids given enormous power to decided their own will end these kinds of situations. Freedom with responsibility is a must. The uncompromising attitude of the spiritual discipline will build the home with the grace and mercy of God.
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, (Judges 11:30-31, Judges 11:34, Judges 11:35, Judges 11: 39.
Although human sacrifice was strictly forbidden to Israelites, we need not be surprised at a man of Jephthah’s half-Canaanite antecedents following Canaanite usage in this matter” (F. Davidson, ed., The New Bible Commentary). And, “Although the lapse of two months might be supposed to have afforded time for reflection and a better sense of his duty, there is but too much reason to conclude that he was impelled to the fulfilment by the dictates of a pious but unenlightened conscience” (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary). Luther wrote, that she was offered in sacrifice.” And the fact that the maidens mourned her virginity and not her death seems to prove that she did not die.
