Tithe And Me Series

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).