A 6th grade class Sunday School class teacher brought a pan of brownies to class and set the pan on a small desk. Then, she gave each child a slip of paper marked with a household expense: house payment; phone bill' credit card bill; car payment; entertainment, and so on. Then she picked up the tray of fresh brownies and began to call out the expenses named on those papers. As the children gave her their expense slips, she would redeem each slip with a brownie from the pan. Finally, the LAST brownie was gone, but there was one boy (named Donald) who still held an unredeemed slip. Then the teacher called out: “God!” And Donald came forward, hoping the teacher had one more brownie hidden somewhere. Instead, the teacher took a butter knife and scraped the crumbs from the bottom of the pan onto Donald’s napkin…. and you could see the disappointment on the boy’s face as she did so.
ALL HE GOT WERE CRUMBS.
Then the teacher explained “The brownies represent our money. If we don’t give God His share right away, He probably won’t get anything at all except maybe the crumbs.”
In our text today God makes an intriguing comment: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is HE WHO GIVES YOU POWER TO GET WEALTH, that he may confirm his covenant that He swore to your fathers….”
Last week, we talked about the fact, that people divide their time into MY TIME and GOD’S TIME. And there are people who think the same way about their money. There’s MY MONEY, and then there’s GOD’S MONEY. But here in Deuteronomy 18, God was saying here: IT’S ALL MY MONEY. I gave you your money. What you have, came from Me. And you need to remember that. You need to remember Me in your money.
"Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth." IT’S ALL GOD’S MONEY!
As one preacher noted: The money you have is loaned, not owned. (Tony Evans) Your money has been loaned to you by God. You don’t own it. In fact, our U.S. currency has a reminder of that truth: “In God We Trust” is found on every bill and every coin in the USA.
Now, how do we DO that? How do we acknowledge that God has given us our wealth? Well, we give some of it back to Him. Proverbs 3:9-10 tells us “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
Notice, God challenges us to give Him our first-fruits. Before we spend money on anything else we need to give our gift to HIM first. We need to plan ahead about what we’re going to give to God. Our opening illustration pointed out that – if we don’t plan ahead - if we don’t set aside a gift for God first - God often gets our crumbs.
Today, we’re going to talk about Tithing. The idea of tithing is that I give 10% of my income to God. So, if I make $500 in a week, I give God $50 in my offering. And if I make $1000 in a week – I give God $100. I can give more… but I’ve decided to give at least a 10th to God. The math is easy, but the giving of that money can be difficult because people tend to think of their money as THEIR money.
Now at this church, we don’t DEMAND that you give a tithe. But we encourage it.
ILLUS: Years ago, there was a couple who started attending here. They had left the church they had attended because that church had sent them a letter demanding they give a 10th of their income or they’d lose their membership. That upset them, and they didn’t think that was right. They had given a tithe every week, but there was no record of it because they gave their offering in… cash. I explained to them that the reason that church had dunned them for their giving was because they were part of a denomination where there was a central organization overseeing several congregations in their district. Now, that central organization had a staff and other expenses that had to be paid, so each congregation was charged a fee that was based upon the number of members in that specific church. Since this couple were “members”, and since they hadn’t declared they were tithing, the church was cutting them off so the church didn’t have to pay the extra fee.
I explained to this couple that we don’t have a CENTRAL organization, so we don’t have anyone to pay a fee to. Any money that’s placed in the offering plate is a gift to God. As a result – no one would know how much you give to God, and we don’t care. As far as we’re concerned - what you give, you give to God… not to me or the church. And what you give, should be based upon what you WANT to give to God.
ILLUS: In our brotherhood, we have a respected preacher named Bob Russell. He told of the time when his first son was born, they had an excellent babysitter who lived next door. Patty not only babysat, she washed dishes, folded clothes, and looked for ways to help around the house. She was dependable, and his son loved her.
When she FIRST started babysitting, he said “I asked Patty how much she charged, and she said, ‘Fifty cents an hour.’ (Obviously this was a long time ago!) And I gladly paid that amount. A few years later, our second son arrived, and I said, “Patty, your responsibilities have increased significantly now. What do you charge for taking care of two children?” “Oh, Mr. Russell, just give me what you WANT to give.” Now… do you think I gave her more or less than 50 cents an hour?
Bob Russell went on to say “In the Old Testament God commanded his people to tithe—to return to God 10 % of their crops & flocks. And now, in our New Testament era, God has given us Jesus; The indwelling Holy Spirit; The fellowship of the church; The promise that when Jesus returns – grave won’t hold us, but we will spend eternity with God in heaven.
Yet when we ask how much we should give, it’s like God says, “Give as you have been prospered. You decide whether that should be more or less than a tithe.” Just like Russell had to decide whether he’d give more or less than 50 cents to the babysitter. So, why should we even THINK about giving a tithe to God? Well… we should do it because we love Him. That’s the ONLY good reason to give anything to God. We shouldn’t give to God out of fear or unfeeling ritual. Our giving should be based on our love for Him.
One person once noted: “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
But when we give God our tithe (out of love for Him) there a couple of benefits that we receive. The 1st is – it gets us involved in ministry. One of the dangers for Christians is that we can feel like we’re spectators. We can just SHOW UP for church and spend time singing, praying and listening to the sermon. But we can end up NOT DOING anything beyond that.
But if you tithe to God, you’re being involved in ministry… because ministry takes money. One of the cool things about this congregation is that we do a LOT of ministry. The building is USED almost every day of the week for God. And that takes electricity, and maintenance and repair of the heating/Air conditioning units. And of course, there’s the office equipment, cleaning and maintaining the building itself. Then, there’s the sound booth…equipment needs replaced once in awhile. And we have the bus ministry where we pick people up for church/youth group every week. That takes gas – about $300 every 2 or 3 weeks. And then there’s upkeep of the buses themselves. We have outreaches like Kidsfest and our annual Revivals. And the church gives money (on your behalf) to various missions, and also sets side money for benevolence and the food bank. That’s about 15% of our budget. Then we have salaries, and we have an outstanding debt on the sanctuary we built a few years back.
ALL OF THAT TAKES MONEY! And when you give of your tithe, you’re being involved in those ministries. Your donation is a VOTE for us to continue to do the things we do. Because without that vote of confidence, the church couldn’t do what it does. But when you tithe… you are actively being involved in ministry.
2ndly – when you tithe, you declare your faith. Your tithe says you trust God (have faith in Him) to fulfill His promises. In Proverbs 3:9-10 God promised “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”
If you want to increase your faith… TITHE! Put God to the test. In Malachi 3:10 God says: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. TEST ME IN THIS,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
GIVE OF THE TITHE AND SEE IF GOD WILL REWARD YOU. That is an act of Faith!
ILLUS: There’s a preacher I enjoy reading whose name is Joe McKeever. He says that a lot of stuff God asks us to do is HARD. You really need FAITH to do these things. And the reason God asks us to do hard things is because He wants us grow in faith. Watch the butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. The struggle, we are told, is a necessary part… of its development. Only people of faith and determination will set out to learn to tithe and witness and understand the Bible, and then stay with it until they are able to do it well. Everyone else drops by the wayside, intending to wait until it’s easy. In doing so, they’re expecting what never was and never shall be. It’s never going to be easy! McKeever said “The members of your church need to be reminded that God does not need their money. He is not suffering from a cash flow problem. Money’s not the issue. God doesn’t need our money… He needs YOU as disciples. And TITHING/ WITNESSING/ READING OUR BIBLES are God’s way of preparing us down here so we will fit in up there.
And that explains the hundreds of teachings on money in the Word.
CLOSE: I want to close with this observation I saw a few years ago. The article pointed out that God EXPECTS to be first in our hearts. He wants us to put Him before anything else in our lives. And so we should”
• Give God the 1st day of every week - Acts 20:7, Hebrews 10:25-26, I Corinthians 16:1.
• Give God the first portion of our income - Malachi 3:10, Proverbs 3:9,10
• Give God the first consideration in every decision - Proverbs 3:5-6, James 1:5-7
• Give God (Christ) first place in our hearts - Colossians 1:18, Mark 12:28-30, Mark 16:15,16) (Don T. Paden at the Montpelier Church of Christ, Montpelier, OH)
MAKE GOD FIRST IN YOUR LIFE AND WATCH AS HE WORKS IN YOUR LIFE.
Invitation
