The Scary Tithe Monster!! Series

Stewardship: God’s Money in Our Hands

Part 1 – The Scary Tithe Monster!

Malachi 3:10-12, Matthew 23:23

September 12, 2010

NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY'S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE." IF IT STILL DOESN'T COMMUNICATE TO YOU, IT'S NOT HIS FAULT...

Audio of this can be heard at www.aberdeenwesleyan.org.

Me: We’ll, we’re going to talk about money over the next 3 weeks I’ll be preaching.

Next week Pastor Isaac Smith will be preaching, and as far as I know, he’s not preaching about money.

But if he is, then that’s a God thing, because I didn’t ask him to preach about money, okay?

And by the way – I’m not talking about tithing and other money stuff because we’re getting the parking lot fixed here in the next few weeks.

I planned this series back in February. Well before we had plans made for the actual repair of the parking lot.

Just wanted to let you know.

I get nervous when I’m preaching about money and tithing, which is the idea that God wants us to give 10% of our income to Him through the Church.

Because I know that it has the potential to just make people turn off and tune out. And no pastor likes that idea.

In fact, as I was going through this message I was stuttering a bit, because I’m a bit nervous about how it’s going to come out.

So just know that I don’t live for the day when I can preach about giving, and especially about tithing like I’m going to today.

But I hope you’ll hear my heart about what I believe God’s Word says to us, more than anything else.

My goal isn’t to guilt you into giving or try to manipulate you into something.

We: My goal today is to help you see that the issue of giving, and especially the issue of tithing doesn’t have to be scary.

In fact, when we understand God’s Word about money and God’s provision as we handle it, then giving and tithing bring blessings from God, and we live in freedom, not fear.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence on that, and I’ll take freedom over fear any day of the week!

The fact is that the Bible talks from Genesis to Revelation about money and how we handle it – or in some cases, how it handles us if we’re not careful.

I think that the main reason the Bible talks so much about money is because it goes right to the heart of where we live.

So much of our lives are centered around financial decisions. We base so much of our decision-making energy around the simple question, “Can we afford this?”

All of us are either in that boat now or have been in it in the past.

And God has something to say to all of us, that if we’ll take it to heart, will not only help us to live in obedience to God, but make our lives a whole lot easier financially.

I can say that because His Word says it and He’s proved it in my family’s life as well as in the lives of other people in this church.

So I’m going to spend three Sundays talking about handling God’s money.

And today I’m going to talk about tithing. I figured I might as well get that one out of the way right away so we could move onto other aspects of stewardship, and then you don’t have to wonder when I was going to get around to it!

I think that most people think of tithing like it’s some kind of monster. Kinda like these up here on the screens…

(Various classic movie monsters)

Are these the kinds of things you think of whenever you think of the subject of tithing?

That spider is the baddest one for me. For me hell would be an open can of slimy lunchroom spinach on one shoulder and a spider on the other…

God: Many of you have heard many sermons on tithing, and so I wanted to do something that would be a little different, and so I just want to give you the bottom line and then talk about it some, okay?

Here’s the bottom line of what I want to communicate today:

Tithe or go to hell!!!

Just kidding!

Just having some fun with you, folks, okay?

The classic passage that churches use when addressing the idea of the tithe is Malachi 3:10-12 (676-677) –

“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. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.