What Do I Owe God
Eccl.11:1-6 2 Corinthians. 8:1-12 9:6-10
Toby
We’ve looked at the topics of what I owe me, what I owe you and what I owe God. Today we’re going to see what’s left if order to be paid in full. How many of you want to arrive in heaven with your debts paid in full? If you want to be paid in full say AMEN!
Rick
You know, if I had 10 million dollars, I’d cause Pastor Rick to have a heart attack when I walked in there and laid my tithe on his desk. Then I’d make sure Our church would have the best hunger ministry here in the city feeding the homeless. The deacons would serve prime rib at the Homegoing dinners. Pastor Kellie would get a full time salary and the New Life Center would be up before the year was over. Yes if I had 10 million dollars, God could certainly count on me. The church would have no more annual deficits, because I’d write a check for the difference. I could easily see myself giving half of it away.
TOBY
Sweetheart I’m so glad to hear you say that. You got an inheritance letter from some lawyer. Uncle Henry left you $50,000 dollars. Now we can wipe out the church deficit so far this year. It’s only $11,000.00 It would be a great blessing to the church and this is unexpected money.
RICK
What are you talking about, we’re not rich. I can find some plans for that money. I said if I had 10 million dollars God could count on me. I’m sure there are other people in the church with a lot more money who could help out with the deficit. What about that rich lawyer and accountant. They could do that.. Beside’s don’t we already give them an extra $3 a month to help with the deficit. The Lord see’s my heart and He knows if I had some extra, I’d surely give it. But I mean some extra above what I need.
Toby
Have you ever met people who are eager to give to God what they do not have in order to be paid in full? Do you know God never asks us to give what we do not have. Not only that, God never asks us to give anything that he did not help us get in the first place. Every believer will agree that somehow he or she is in debt to God for all that God has done for him or for her. The bible teaches we love God because God first loved us. What does love require. Love requires some kind of response.
RICK
You know Honey, I love you so very much, there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for you.
Toby
Well could we go on a cruise this summer.
Rick
I’d like to sweetheart, but I need the money for the fishing trip, I’ve prepared with the guys. We’ve been planning it for years.
TOBY
Okay that’s understandable. Could we to that fancy new downtown restaurant this weekend.
RICK
Well I want to, but I heard their prices are pretty steep. I went there a couple of times myself to check it out. There’s a new buffet place that just opened that’s a lot better bargain for the meal.
TOBY
Well okay. I tell you what. Let’s plan a weekend for ourselves at the downtown Marriott, in their suite.
RICK
I’ve seen that suite and its nice, I stayed there a couple of times before we got married, but I think we can have just as a good a time down at the Motel 6 near Mentor. It’s not the money that makes the experience, it’s the fact that we’re together that counts. I just love you so much.
RICK
How many of you think I have a problem with my love for my new wife? How many of you think I might not have a wife for long. How many of you know she’s not getting the feeling I’m paying her in full for all she’s worth. We see that my love for her is greatly influenced by my attraction to my money. My action are not following the words I proclaim. How would you have felt if you were my wife. How often is that true in our relationship to God. Our love for God is overflowing until something is asked of us.
TOBY
There are many people who are willing to give, only when they think it will not cost them anything to do it. If you have to win something before you give to God, you have not made any kind of sacrifice for the Lord.
Jesus came to earth with a mission. He said, “I came to seek and to save those who were lost.” That was the most critical aspect of Jesus’ ministry. Then Jesus turned around and gave the mission to us. He tells us in John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Notice that as a result of us doing what God tells us to do, God is able to bless us with answers to our prayers.
RICK
One of our purpose as believers is to enter into a right relationship with God. We all share this obligation and this privilege together. One of the things which hinders doing what God has told us to do, is money. It’s not the lack of money that’s the problem, it’s our love of money. Our love for money can blind us to what we owe to the mission of God in this world.
TOBY
We may feel God really is important in our lives, however that feeling has not moved to a to a level of gratefulness which leads to self sacrifice. Now we know that Jesus does not lie. Jesus told us, we cannot love God and also love money. Well how do we know, when we’ve started to love money. We know it , when we and our money determines how we live rather than our God determining how we live. Money transforms us in to playing little god.
RICK
The Bible gives us standards for our giving. It is always based on what we already have. The principle is simple. Give a percentage of what you have. To be paid in full, we’re not required to give it all. We’re asked for a portion of it. God gives it all to us, and then allows us to give him back a portion in order to be paid in full. Suppose you went to the bank and they gave you $100.00 How would you feel if they told you, to be paid in full, all you have to do is give them back $10. You’d say is this a good deal or what. Do you know what this is—Look at pears. This is a tithe. This is yours this is God.
TOBY
Now when it comes to consistent regular giving, the Bible speaks of us giving a tithe. A tithe is giving God one penny out of each dime that we get. It never ever gets more than that. Yet the more money we get, the easier it becomes to get greedy. The harder it becomes to give. Somehow, the more of those dimes we get, the more we feel we should not have to give God quite as many pennies. All God wants is one penny out of 10.
RICK 7 TOBY
Say what you got in that bag.
I got 10 great big cookies with the dollar you gave me.
I’m really hungry, could you possibly share some with me.
Well I guess I could. (Takes out one cookie and breaks off a corner of it and gives it to me and eats the other half.)
That’s all you’re going to give me.
Of Course, these are my cookies so you ought to be grateful.
But I gave you the money to buy them.
Well if you had wanted cookies, maybe you should have bought some for yourself first.
But I gave you the money to begin with.
When you did, it became my money. But don’t you think you owe me a little something.
Sure I do, that’s why I gave you a little piece of my cookie.
RICK
Somehow we hope that a person will show their love for us in proportion to how much they have received or how much they have. A poor wife does not expect her husband to come home with a $5000 ring. A rich wife does not expect her husband to come home with a $50 ring. What brings joy to the first, would be an insult to the second.
TOBY
This is why God asks for a tithe and not an amount. Giving 10% of what we have is within all of our budgets. It is we who determine what lifestyle we must have. We all can either bring joy to God’s heart with our giving or we can insult God with our giving. It is foolishness to say, it does not matter what you give, so long as you give something. We certainly do not treat those we respect like that. God gives us the opportunity to give in proportion to how we have been blessed.
RICK
No one anywhere is more generous than God. God takes His stuff, and gives it to us and then ask if we will keep 90% of it give Him back 10%. Now God knew that some of us would not be grateful for the exchange so He throws in an extra blessing. God says, “Let me help you and give you a motive in addition to your love for me.”
So we see in the promise in Malachi 3:10-11 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. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
Now we see what’s in the word of God. We see the principle give today and let God do something special for you tomorrow. The only problem is that the money I have in my hand right now, looks a whole lot better than what God says He might give me in the future.
So when we need a little extra, or want to pad something for ourselves, we choose to take it from God’s amount. (Go To Pears And Eat) Taking Bites for our expenses.
TOBY
Some people say, “Well did Jesus ever tell us to tithe.” Let’s see. One group that did not have a problem with tithing was the Pharisees who were the Pharisees. Look at Luke 11:42 Luke 11:42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”
Now Jesus is saying to them, fellows when it comes to paying tithes, you tithe on everything you get and that’s good, but remember you also have to practice justice and show others the love of God. You should have done these two things, along with your paying tithes
RICK
Now one day, Jesus is going to ask us to give an account of all the money that He gave to us, not just the 10% but the 90% as well. Let’s imagine entering into the courtroom of heaven. All the saints are standing around, and we go before Jesus to see how we did with what was put in our care.
Jesus looks at us with His piercing eyes. He shows us his hands and his side to remind us of the price he paid for us to be saved. He then says, “I came to seek and to save those who were lost, how did you help in my mission? How much did you use to spread the gospel, to feed the hungry, to help the homeless, to care for the sick, and to remember those in prison.”
TOBY
How many of us are planning on saying, “Lord you know I did the best I could.” Do you realize that if this is going to be our line of defense, our first words spoken to Jesus will be a lie?” Do we actually plan to try to lie our way out of how poorly we managed what God gave to us?
The best time to prepare for that day is now. When we say “I can’t afford to tithe, let’s be honest without God and with ourselves. What we’re really saying, is the decisions I have made for my choice of lifestyle requires that I spend up the money God told me to set aside.” God will never allow us to use the excuse, “I could not afford it.” We all have the ability to be paid in full, if we adjust our lifestyle to our faith.
RICK
The reality is we could not afford that home, or that car, or that vacation, or that dress, or that place to eat, or that furniture, or that savings plan, or that brand of clothes, or that school, or that apartment or that neighborhood, or that jewelry, or that amount of savings or whatever it was. Tithing is never an issue of how much we made, it is always an issue of how we chose to spend it. If we don’t feel as though we owe God much, we will give him a piece of the cookie instead of the cookie. We will not arrive in heaven Paid In Full. We might just have a core of a pear left.
TOBY
In our church we have people on Social Security who choose to tithe and those who choose to say they can’t afford it, we have youth who tithe, and those who say they can’t afford it. and we have working adults with low paying jobs and good paying jobs who choose to tithe and those in the same position who say they can’t afford it.
RICK
If you’re not tithing why not. Maybe you can’t get there today because of the debt you’re in. But don’t stay there. God expects you to begin to make changes today in your lifestyle, so that you can become faithful in this area of your life as well. What would you be willing to let go of, if all of a sudden you lost your job and your income was half of what it is now. Well those are the kinds of things we need to examine if are serious about getting our lives in spiritual order.
TOBY
Tithing is never a matter of the amount of money we make. It is always a matter of how much do we appreciate what God has done for us and how important is being in the will of God to our lives. God never intended for tithing to be a means to keep people poor. It’s a means of people choosing to trust God to supply their needs. Tithing was both a means to support the work of Jesus Christ for the church and means to a step of faith to being blessed by God in a number of areas in our individual lives. Tithing teaches what it means to be grateful to God.
RICK
God loved us long before we knew Him. But Jesus comes along and loves us. Provides us with new life here on earth and eternal life beyond. He pays for our salvation with His own life. He forgives our sins and gives us purpose. He then turns around and tells us, “come and use what you have that I might save others.” How much are you willing to give just to say thank you?
It’s okay to give because you believe you’re going to get something back. That’s just one of God’s promises. But it is a much higher form of giving when we say, Lord I can never repay my debt to you. But I do just want to say Thank You. Please use this, to help bring someone else into a right relationship with God. Won’t it be great to see your family members and your friends in heaven, because somebody chose to tithe. Won’t it be even greater to know that it was you who made the choice.
TOBY
How strange it is that the only time people get concerned with how we spend our money is when we give it to the Lord. Tell them you paid $550,000.00 for you home they admire you. Tell them you spent $65,0000.00 on a car they admire you. Tell them you spent $350 on a dress or $400 on a suit and they wish it was them. Tell them your hair style costs $175 and they tell you how good you look.
But what happens when you tell them you tithe.
Rick
“What you are crazy. You give 10% of your money at the church so that the preacher can ride around in mercedez. You must be out of your mind. I believe in supporting the work of the ministry but, this tithing stuff is ridiculous.”
Toby
“Let me asK you this, at your funeral, would you like for me to say you paid $550,0000 on your house, $65,000 on you car, $450 on your suit, $175 on your hair, and gave $10 a week at church.”
Rick
“Well I don’t think people should know what others give to the Lord. They should just say I was fine Christian who loved the Lord. How I spent my money should be nobody’s business.”
Toby
Sounds to me like you might be a little embarrassed. About Your giving.
God is going to open the books at the resurrection anyway, and many of us will be ashamed at how little we gave in comparison to things we obtained for ourselves. We will recognize we had far more to give than we admitted. What we owe God may come up very short.
If we have not given our finances to God, we most certainly are not going to then turn and give them to the church. God is more impressed with how much we have left over for ourselves than He is how much we put in. Whenever we require over 90% for ourselves, something is wrong with the choice we’re making for our life styles. Are we willing to start where we are. Young people, if you can’t tithe an allowance, you won’t tithe a salary. If you won’t tithe at $400 a week, you certainly won’t do it at $4,000. God is always only asking for what we have.
Rick
Let’s face it. Over the years we’ve spent so much on things that we don’t even have the space to put the things. A lot of those things are sitting waiting to be thrown out. The thrill of many of things have long since gone. We talked about them in the first sermon what I we me. What’s it going to take for us to truly want to be considered paid in full when we get to heaven.
Toby
We’ve been a married for 26 years. We gave our hearts to the Lord as teens. We have never not tithed in all those years regardless of how little or how large our income was. We can’t tell you that because of tithing we never had a problem, or we always got back a surprise check in the mail, or we never had to go without some things to pay my bills. We learned how to live below the amount of money we made.
Rick
We do know this about tithing. God has helped us to be liberated from the need to try to keep up with anybody. We could care less that someone think me strange for wearing $24.99 shoes, $120 suits, and carrying a $29.00 brief case. Our lives have not been tied up in possessions. We’re investing in things for the kingdom of God. Some of you think we’re rich and that’s how we give away so much. No we’re not rich, we are wise in the things of God and free from having to impress others. Feel free to spend what you want on your shoes, your clothes, your car, and your home, but don’t then turn around and say you’d tithe if you could afford it. Tithe, and then get what you feel you need.
Pastor Toby
Has it been worth it for us. You better believe it has. We enjoy each other as much as ever in our marriage. God has blessed us with a wonderful family. We are pastors of one of the greatest churches in the world in terms of the love and support we receive from the people in it. There is nothing we are dying to have and can’t live without. The joy of knowing Christ and of having been called by Him is a far greater treasure than any investment we could have made in the stock market.
Rick
We believe that in tithing and going beyond, We have laid up treasures for ourselves that we can call upon from God and God will sends his mercy to be sufficient in our difficult moments. We also expect God to send me money from sources we didn’t even think of to meet our needs. We truly want to be paid in full when we arrive before God.
Those of us who tithe have the right to say with the apostle Paul, "My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.
Toby
If we let go of our desire to be blessed with things, we can become a blessing to the others and the work of the ministry. We can arrive in heaven knowing we are coming with a paid in full stamp across our forehead as far as the issue of possessions go. One thing for sure, when we see Jesus face to face, we are all going to wish we had done more to try to save others because of the price that Jesus had been willing to pay to save us.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick & Pastor Toby
Paid In Full
10/22/2006 Psalms 100 2 Corinthians 8:1-7
A. Yes God Can Trust Me
1. What I Owe Me
2. If I Only Had 10 Million Dollars
3. Eager To Give What We Do Not Have
4. We Love God Because God First Loved Us
5. Wow I Really Do Love You
6. When Money & Love Collide
B. Jesus Came With A Mission—To Seek & To Save
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
1. Our Purpose Is To Enter Into A Right
2. Gospel Message –Privilege & Obligation
3. What Hinders The Mission—Love Of Money
4. Jesus—Can’t Love God And Money
5. Who Is The Real God In Our Lives
C. The Standards For Biblical Giving
1. Percentage Giving-Looking At The Pears
2. Tithing Regular Giving Penny From A Dime
3. Keep Your Dollars
4. But They Are My Cookies
D. Our Love Should Remain Proportional
1. The Poor, The Rich, The Ring
2. It Was Already In The Budget
3. Please Keep 90%
4. Loving In Proportion, Not Amounts
E. Just Where Did All The Stuff Come From
1. God Made It All, Owns It All, Has It All
2. God Gives 100% Stuff, Keep 90% Stuff, 10% Stuff
Malachi 3:10-11 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. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
3. Give Today, Be Blessed Tomorrow—But I Have It
4. Did Jesus Ever Say Anything About Tithing
5. Jesus On Tithing With The Pharisees
Luke 11:42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
F. One Day Jesus Is Going To Ask For An Accounting
1. The Courtroom Of Heaven—The Saints—Jesus Eyes
2. The Hands, The Nails, The Price, The Mission
Matthew 25:42-43 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
3. How Will We Answer
4. Will You Say “I Did The Best I Can” Please Don’t
5. Today Is The Time To Start To Prepare
G. What If We Really Can’t Afford To Tithe
1. Is It The Tithe Of The Lifestyle Choices
2. What Is It We Really Can’t Afford
3. Individuals Making Choices
4. None Will Be Able To Say I Couldn’t Afford It
5. Changes Need To Be Initiated Today
H. What About When Debt & Unfortunate Circumstances Come Into Our Lives
1. God’s Grace & Mercy—Our Responsibility
2. What Would You Surrender If ½ Income
Disappeared
3. Tithing Never Based On Amount Of Money Made
4. Appreciation & Being In God’s Will
5. To Support The Work Of Christ—A Door To
Blessings
6. An Opportunity To Grow In Faith
7. Teaches What It Means To Be Grateful
I. People Become Concerned When We Spend Money
1. Wow That’s Great
2. You’re Wasting Your Money
3. What Should They Say At Your Funeral
4. Opening Of The Books
5. How Much Was Left Over
J. Blessed Beyond What We Need
1. Possessions We No Longer Need
2. Making Some Choices For Living
3. Learning Contentment
4. God Will Supply Our Needs
5. My God Shall Supply All Your Needs
