Topic: Stewardship
Learning to Lean
Part 4
Stewardship: Trusting Enough to Tithe
Text: Judges 7:9-22
Intro:
This morning I would like to finish our series on Stewardship that I have entitled Learning to Lean.
Illus
Eric Hulstrand writes in Leadership magazine: "While I was preaching one Sunday, an elderly woman, Mary, fainted and struck her head on the end of the pew. Immediately, an EMT in the congregation called an ambulance. s they strapped her to a stretcher and got ready to head out the door, Mary regained consciousness. She motioned for her daughter to come near. Everyone thought she was summoning her strength to convey what could be her final words.
The daughter leaned over until her ear was at her mother’s mouth.
’My offering is in my purse,’ she whispered."
This morning I would like to bring you a message entitled Trusting Enough To Tithe.
Illus
A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairman of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: No report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year.
At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of
$200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent $1,000 to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank.
"How did you do all this?" asked the priest and the shocked congregation.
Quietly he answered, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it." --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc, 1988), p. 460.
The past three weeks we have looked extensively at the three foundations of Stewardship:
Lordship, Trust, and God’s Provision.
We have also looked at the definition of a Steward…
This definition is really key.If we do not consider ourselves stewards of the Kingdom of God, we
are going to have problems with Lordship, and we are going to have big problems when it comes to the area of Tithing.
Defintion: “Someone who is responsible for another man’s property.”
We are in such a key position as stewards.
John Wesley once said…
"When the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward--as such He entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds--but the sole property of these still rests in Him, nor can ever be alienated from Him. As you are not your own but His, such is likewise all you enjoy. "
One of the barometers we can use as to the health of this area of Stewardship in our life, is our attitude concerning giving to the work of the Lord. Notice I said it is our attitude towards giving, not the amount of our giving that is the barometer. The enemy comes in and says that it is the amount…this is not so.There are times in our lives when God blesses us by putting us in the place of the giver, and then there are times in our lives when God blesses us by putting us in the place of the receiver.
It is not the amount, but the attitude that is important.
Duet 16:17
"Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. "
Illus
I read of one pastor who perceived the whole concept of encouragement from a financial point of view. He announced one Sunday that he had made a new offering box for the weekly collection of the tithes and offerings. He claimed that it was designed to encourage people to become better stewards of their money.
"This new box," he explained, "has some interesting features. When you drop in a check or paper money in large amounts, the box makes no sound at all. Put a quarter in and it tinkles like a bell. A dime blows a whistle, and a penny fires a shot. When you put in nothing, the box takes your picture."
The Need or Use of Finances can be one of the most divisive issues within a church. I am so thankful for attitude that many of you have when it comes to this area within this body of believers.
Quotes
"God judges what we give by what we keep."
- G. Mueller
"I have tried to keep things in my hands and lost them all, but what I have given into God’s hands I still possess." – Martin Luther
J. D. Rockefeller said, “I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.”
"When it comes to giving, some people will stop at nothing." - Jimmy Carter
"The trouble is that too many people are spending money they haven’t yet earned for things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like. "
"Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving"-Peter Marshall
"If you give what you do not need, it isn’t giving"
Mother Teresa
-One last quote….
Adolphe Monod (1800-1856)
"There is no portion of our time that is our time, and the rest God’s; there is no portion of money that is our money, and the rest God’s money. It is all his; he made it all, gives it all, and he has simply trusted it to us for his service. A servant has two purses, the master’s and his own, but we have only one. "
Lets go to God’s word for a few minutes and look at talk about this principle of Tithing. Once again we are going to use the Story of Gideon as a road map so to speak to learn about what God is asking of us in this all important area of stewardship.
Read Judges 7:9-22
Remember I have said over and over stewardship comes down to Trust and Lordship. In no other area of our life do we need to practice Trust and Lordship than in our finances.
-Lets look at what we learn.
1)God Promises His Blessings v. 9
“During that night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.”
God promises us His Blessings.One of the ways He promises us His blessings is through the principle of Tithing.
Malachi 3:6-9
Verse 10 says “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.”
The promise goes forth for those who are willing to give to the Lord. We don’t have time to go into the Old Testament law in defining the what this tithe was that Malachi was speaking of other than to say it was a tenth.
-It was to be the First Fruits…the best.
-It did not belong to the Children of Israel.
-There were other offerings expected above the
tithe.
God has promised to bless his children if they will give. This is not only a Old Testament Principle
Matthew 7:9-11 says that God is willing to give good gifts to his children.
Over and over the principle of God blessing his people is there both in the Old and New Testament.We will look at some more scripture in a minute, but first lets look at the second point, because there is a prerequisite to receiving this blessing of God.
2) Blessings Require Action v9
“Get up, go down against the camp,”
There are times when God says…I have delivered the camp into your hands…now get up and go. Many times to receive the blessings of God in our lives, we must show action in our camp. Want some Scripture for this…Here are a few.
Luke 6:38
2 Corinthians 9:6
Phil 4:6,7
Matt 6:33
-How about the Old Tesatment…
Isaiah 26:3
Ps 31:19
-James sums it up…in 2:26…”Faith without Works is dead”
When we say we trust in God, and then we get up and go down to the enemies camp like the Lord told us too…then God truly can perform the miraculous in and through us.Our financial giving once again is a barometer of whether or not we are getting up and going.
3)Actions are designed by God vv 13-15
When God asks us to do somethings…it may not always be the most conventional way, do it anyways. He told the Leper to wash in the Dirty Jordon River…Did it Work? Yes. Did the Leper’s conventional wisdom say it would work…No!It goes back to God wanting the credit…not man.
Sometimes God asks us to do some pretty unconventional things in our giving. It is so easy to try and talk ourselves out of this… the enemy tries every rational in the book to confound our efforts of obedience. Here are some of lines he pitches to us…and excuses we use
I Can’t Afford It
If I had More I Would
I already Tithe just by my own standard
I am so far behind I don’t know where to start
I like to spread my tithe out
Don’t listen to these lies…if God is in it He will help you to be obedient to Him.Is it always easy…no
Illus:
A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church. “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did.”
Is it easy to Tithe…no. But listen closely to this last point.
4) What God Designs He also Empowers v22
When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the
LORD caused the men throughout the camp to
turn on each other with their swords.
God calls us all to be cheerful givers. He will never call you to do something that He will not also empower you to complete. Does this mean if we tithe we will never have to sacrifice financially? No in fact in may cause us to sacrifice greatly to fulfill what He is asking us to do. You know what…this is okay. It is good for us to deny self every once in a while in order for the Kindgom to be
built.
?Do I hear an Amen?
When I say that God empowers us…it doesn’t mean that money will begin to grow on trees in our front yard the moment we begin to tithe.
In fact if the Tithing principle is correct according to Malachi, 10% is just our reasonable service…it has nothing to do with our gratitude for what He has
done for us.
When I say that God empowers us…I mean that He will provide, strengthen, equip, discipline, and train you to make it through the lean times.
In the case of Elijah their was always just enough oil and flower in the bins.
Conclusion
Illus:
There was a knock on the door of the hut occupied by a missionary in Africa. Answering, the missionary found one of the native boys holding a large fish in his hands. The boy said, "Reverend, you taught us what tithing is, so here--I’ve brought you my tithe." As the missionary gratefully took the fish, he questioned the young lad. "If this is your tithe, where are the other nine fish?" At this, the boy beamed and said, "Oh, they’re still back in the river. I’m going back to catch them now.
We learn Lordship and Trust from Gideon.We also learn four principles we can put into the area of Stewardship, especially the area of financial giving.
1) God Promises His Blessings v. 9
2) Blessings Require Action v9
3) Actions are designed by God vv 13-15
4) What God Designs He also Empowers v22
-Have you been robbing God?
-What is God speaking to You?
-Have you been obedient to Him?
-Have you been trusting Him enough to Tithe?
-Are you leaning on or leaning against?
