Title: Is tithing worth the effort?
Text: Genesis 14:17-20
Date: 1/13/08
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
illustration: The pastor of a church that didn’t have the reputation for being very generous with their giving decided that it was time to do something drastic in order to teach the congregation the importance of giving. He contacted an electrician and had all of the pews wired.
The next Sunday which was the first Sunday of the New Year, the time when the church had traditionally taken up pledges from the people the Pastor stood up and made the following announcement. "From now on instead of putting your pledges in sealed envelopes and turning them into the church office all pledges will be made publicly during the worship service." Then he said, so let’s get started. "All of you who will pledge to give ten dollars a week, please stand up." As soon as he said this he pushed a button that the electrician had installed in the pulpit and it sent a jolt of electricity through the wires and into the pews. Immediately about one half of the congregation jumped to their feet. The pastor reached down and adjusted a knob on the podium and then said, "All you who will pledge to give twenty dollars a week please stand." A second stronger volt of electricity caused several more people to rise to their feet. This whole process was repeated several times. Each time the pledge amount was raised along with the voltage. The ushers had to work fast just to record all of the names and pledges.
After the service the pastor and his staff were busy adding up the totals and congratulating themselves on the great success of the annual stewardship campaign—Their enthusiasm ended abruptly however, when one of the Deacons opened the door and announced that four church members had been electrocuted because they refused to stand up.
Now don’t worry, the Stewardship Committee and I didn’t wire the seats and I have no plans of doing anything like that. It’s none of my business whether you give $1 or $100, that’s between you and God. But as your Pastor it is my responsibility to tell you that what you give to the Lord every week is a good indication of your faith in God and your spiritual maturity. In other words, one of the best ways to monitor how you’re doing spiritually is to take a look at your giving.
(1) . THE FIRST POINT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND IS: THAT GIVING IS AN ACT OF WORSHIP.
Just as the Wise men bowed down and worshipped the Lord when they presented their gifts to Him it is an act of worship when we give our tithes and offerings on Sunday morning. It is a way for each of us to show our love and appreciation to God for everything He does for us.
When we give our tithes and offerings to the Lord it is important that we have the right attitude. We should never give because we feel obligated to do so or simply out of habit. Instead we should give our tithes and offerings to the Lord because we love God and want to thank him for blessing us. .
Not only that, we should never give expecting to receive anything in return. Even though the Bible teaches that God will open up the storehouses of heaven and pour His blessings out upon us, we should never give in order to get more.
Next, I personally believe we should give our tithes and offerings to the Lord without any strings attached. Now I realize that I may be walking on thin ice with a few of you here this morning, but I’ve never understood how anyone can rationalize ‘designating’ their tithe. In my opinion that’s like giving someone $100 as a Christmas present and then stipulating how they can spend the money.
I believe our tithes should be given to the Lord through the local church and anything you want to give over and above that can be designated to whatever fund or ministry that you want to support.
Worship is a word that comes from the word “worthy.” We give to God because he is Lord of the universe and He and He alone is worthy of our worship and praise. We should not only worship Him with our lips, but with our gifts and with our lives. As I mentioned last week, in the 12th chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul urges us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord.
One of the questions that people have about giving, especially people who did not grow up in the church, is just how much they should give? I would never tell anyone that they were required to give a certain amount or even a certain percentage of their income, because I believe that is between the individual and God.
However, the Bible does give us some basic guidelines or principles for giving. With that in mind, I want to look at several passages of these passages of scripture, some in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament. Turn with me to Genesis 14:17-20
GE 14:17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
GE 14:18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,
GE 14:19 and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.
GE 14:20 And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
This is the first example of many in the Old Testament of giving a tithe or 10% to the Lord. Abraham was not required to do this but wanted to express His thanks to God for being with him and giving Him the victory, so he gave an offering to the High Priest Melchizedek. Eventually it became law for the Israelites to give 10 % of everything to the Lord. That 10 percent or tithe was holy, and was to be set aside for the Lord and not used for common purposes. When they were faithful to God God He blessed them with crops and herds, and the ability to work. Because they were grateful for the way God had provided for them they then returned a tenth of everything to him. As long as they did this God was faithful to provide everything they needed.
(2) A SECOND OLD TESTAMENT PRINCIPLE THAT RELATES TO GIVING IS THAT WE SHOULD GIVE GOD OUR BEST. (READ GEN 4:3-7)
GE 4:3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.
GE 4:4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
GE 4:5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
GE 4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
GE 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Biblical Scholars have offered several different possibilities over the years as to why Cain’s offering was not accepted by God while Abel’s was. Some say it was the attitude that he had in giving it. But most scholars believe he failed to give God the best of his crops. Notice in verse 3, it simply said that Cain brought some of his crops, while in verse 4, it says that Abel brought the best portions of meat from the firstborn of his flocks. The writer of Hebrews explains it like this:
HEB 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.
In the book of Leviticus God gave Moses very specific instructions to give to the Israelites concerning the sacrifices and offerings they were to bring to Him.
In Leviticus 1:1 it says, “ The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said,
LEV 1:2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
LEV 1:3 " `If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD.
Now of course this passage of Scripture has to do with making sacrifices to the Lord, which is something that we are no longer required to do. However, I believe the principle of giving God our best applies to us just as much as it did the Israelites.
During one of those times when the Israelites had gotten away from the Lord and were simply going through the motions of worship, they started offering second rate animals as sacrifices and kept the best for themselves.
God responded to them through the prophet Malachi when He said, “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD.
"Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations. MAL 1:14
Illustration: A few years ago I heard about a woman who called the Butterball turkey hotline. She had a turkey that had been in the freezer for a couple of years and wanted to know if it would still be okay to prepare it for their Thanksgiving Day meal. The operator told her that even though the meat wouldn’t be spoiled that it wouldn’t be as good as it would have been when it was fresh. The lady then said, “well that’s what I figured, so I’ll just give it to the church.”
That’s the same kind of attitude the Israelites had in Malachi’s day and time. They wanted to keep the best for themselves and sacrifice second rate or even diseased animals. In the 3rd chapter of Malachi, He goes as far as saying that they were robbing God by refusing to give Him their tithes and offerings.
Unfortunately, sometimes we are guilty of doing the same thing. Many of us only give God what is left over after we finish buying everything we want, and paying all of our bills. Which brings me to the next point I want to make this morning.
(3) NOT ONLY SHOULD WE GIVE GOD OUR BEST BUT WE SHOULD MAKE SURE WE GIVE TO HIM FIRST.
Illustration: This is something that my parents have done for as long as I can remember. My Dad usually got his check on Friday. My mother would go to the bank to deposit it, but she always kept out at least 10 percent for their tithe. She would bring it home and put it in a certain drawer in the Kitchen. Then on Sunday they would put the money in their offering envelope and take it to church.
I wish I could say that I have always followed the example they set for me but I haven’t. Although I do believe we should all consider doing that this year.
Illustration: A few years ago, a church in Galveston, Texas had a Tithing Demonstration Sunday for its members. On a designated Sunday everyone was asked to give a tithe of one week’s salary. They urged everyone … whether they usually tithed or not… to give a tithe that particular Sunday.
The offering that Sunday was the largest that had ever been given. In fact, it was 6 times the usual offering. The aftermath was even more exciting. Many church members who had never been tithers decided if they could do it once, they could do again.
By the end of that year giving was up almost 3 times what it had been before the demonstration. The enthusiasm was up more than that. Over and over, people gave testimonies of the way God had blessed them during that year. Maybe we should consider doing something like that here.
Which brings me to the next point I want to make.
(4) IF YOU CLAIM THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO TITHE, IN REALITY WHAT YOU’RE SAYING IS THAT YOU DON’T TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE FOR YOUR NEEDS.
Illustration: A church member was having trouble dealing with the concept of tithing. One day he revealed his doubts to his pastor. He said, "Pastor, I just don’t see how I can give 10 percent of my income to the church when I can’t even stay on top of our bills now."
The pastor replied, "John, if I promise to help you pay your bills if you fall short, do you think you could try tithing for just one month?"
John thought about that for a moment then said, "Sure, if you promise to help me out when I fall short, I guess I could try tithing for one month."
"Now, what do you think of that," the pastor said, "You say you’d be willing to put your trust in poor preacher like myself’ who doesn’t even own a home, but you can’t seem to trust your Heavenly Father who owns the entire universe!"
John got the point loud and clear and has been tithing faithfully ever since!
Jesus addressed this kind of attitude in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:30).
If deep down in your heart you doubt whether or not God really will come through for you, then you’ll never be able to experience the full and abundant life that Jesus wants you to experience.
One of the reasons why we can be generous in our giving is because we have a God who loves us, who cares about us, and who has promised to provide for us.
(5) Finally, DID YOU REALIZE THAT MOST OF WHAT THE BIBLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT MONEY IS NEGATIVE,
Jesus warned His disciples about the negative aspects of money when He told them that you cannot serve both God and money.
1TI 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
However on a couple of occasions the Bible does speak of money in a positive light. In Acts 20:35 it says, that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And it is also positive when it says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
That’s important. We shouldn’t give our tithes and offerings because we feel obligated to do so. Nor should we give them because we are afraid of what God might do to us if we don’t. Instead, we should follow Abraham’s example and give our tithes and offerings to God as an expression of our love and appreciation for Him and the way He has blessed us.
Conclusion: One day a father took his son by McDonalds and bought him some French fries, because the little boy said he was hungry and wanted a snack. So he went through the drive-thru and ordered the boy some French fries. After paying for them, the father hands them to his son, who is sitting in the seat next to him and pulls back out onto the road. Then the father does what I’ve done hundreds of times. He reached over to get one of the French fries. But when He did, his son slapped his hand and said, "Don’t touch my french fries."
The man couldn’t believe how selfish his son was. The more he thought about it the more upset he got. After all, he had paid for those French fries with his money, and all he wanted was one little french fry. I don’t know about you but I can understand the father’s frustration.
But when you stop and think about it, we treat our heavenly father the same way this little boy treated his dad.
He has given us everything we have, including our material possessions and our money. Yet when He asks us to give a small portion of that back to him as a tithe, we are like that little boy. We slap His hand and say, "Keep Your hands off my money."
One of the best ways to monitor how you’re spiritual maturity is to take a look at your giving.
• Are you giving God your best?
• Are you striving to give to Him first or are you giving Him your leftovers?
• Do you really trust God enough to give the way He wants you to?
Prayer
