The Habit of Giving
1 Corinthians 16:2, 2 Corinthians 8:7, John 3:16, Matthew 6:21, 1 Timothy 6:17-18,
Proverbs 3:5, Prov 3:9-10, Luke 6:38, Matthew 6:19 - 20, Proverbs 11:25. 22:9,
Deuteronomy 14:22, Matthew 23:23, Deuteronomy 14:23, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Psa 116:12, Deuteronomy 16:17, Malachi 3:8-10, John14:15, Malachi 3:10, 1 Corinthians 16:2,
2 Corinthians 9:12, 2 Corinthians 9:7, 2 Corinthians 9:6, 2 Corinthians 8:5
December 28, 2003
I. I want to look at another habit that we need to develop as Christians. This is a subject that I don’t preach about a lot but it is a habit that we need to develop.
A. I want to now look at the habit of tithing or honoring GOD with my giving. Every time that I say something about this subject I have to live down all the TV evangelist that have ever miss used it. In the past few years there have been a lot of people that have abused people’s obedience to giving to God, but that does not mean that it is not to be one of the basic habits of Christians.
B. Why is this one of the basic habits? The Bible is a book about giving. The Bible talks more about giving than it talks about either heaven or hell. Jesus talked more about giving than almost any other subject.
1. Over half of His parables have to do with money. There are more promises in the Bible related to giving than any other subject.
(1 Cor 16:2 NIV) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
2. Notice that it says "the first day of every week". Is that a habit? Yes.
(2 Cor 8:7 NIV) But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us --see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
C. Let me put into perspective what the Bible says. In the key words that are used in the Bible, the word "believe" is used 272 times; the word "pray" is used 371 times; the word "love" is used 714 times; the word "give" is used 2162 times.
1. God is a giver and God wants us to become like Him.
II. I want to give you seven reasons that God wants us to give.
A. FIRST GIVING MAKES ME MORE LIKE GOD.
1. God is a giver and if we re going to be like God, we ve got to become givers too.
2. The Bible says (John 3:16 NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
3. He loved, so He gave. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Christians are to be the most giving people in the world because we’re to be the most loving people in the world.
B. GIVING DRAWS ME CLOSER TO GOD.
1. (Mat 6:21 NIV) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
2. "Wherever I put my money shows my priorities. If I put my money in my house, that s where my heart is. If I put my money into eating out, that s where my stomach is! If I put my money into clothes, into a hobby... that s where my heart is.
3. The question then becomes, Where do you want your heart to be? Wherever you want your heart to be, that s where you need to put your money. Where you treasure is, there your heart is also. The fact is, every time you give back to God, you re drawing closer to Him.
C. GIVING IS THE ANTIDOTE TO MATERIALISM.
1. We live in a materialistic world. What is materialism? It s get. Get all I can, can all I get, sit on the can, and spoil the rest. Get! Get!
2. What is the opposite of getting? Giving. Giving is the antidote to materialism. The only way I can know if I m having victory over materialism is if am I willing to part with some of what I ve got.
(1 Tim 6:17-18 NIV) Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
3.
Notice he says, "Command those who are rich " Everybody in this room is rich. Everybody who lives in America is rich compared to the rest of the world. Most of the world would love to have our problems.
4. Most of the world would love to have our bills. They re worried about am I going to have a meal for the next day? Am I going to have a meal for my kids tonight? So this applies to all of us.
5. He says "everything is given for our enjoyment". It s OK to enjoy the blessings you ve got. You don t need to feel guilty about them. God has blessed you. But he says true living comes from giving. We are commanded to be generous and to be willing to share.
6. We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give. We need to show that balance.
D. GIVING STRENGTHENS MY FAITH.
1. Faith is like a muscle. God uses finances to test your faith. (Prov 3:5 NIV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
(Prov 3:9-10 NIV) Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
2. God says that the way we prove our trust, the way we demonstrate our faith, is by giving the first part of our income back to Him.
(Luke 6:38 NIV) Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
3. God says, "I dare you! Try me. See if this works. Let s see if this works. Let s see how much you want Me to bless your life. You give a cup, you get a cup of blessing. You give a bigger cup, you get a bigger cup. You pull up a dump truck, you get a dump truck s worth.
4. The measure you use is the measure you re going to get." Giving strengthens my faith. The issue with why a lot of people don t give is that they just don t believe. They just don t really believe God will take care of them.
5. Lest you get the wrong idea we are not to give to God so that God will give us more, we are to give to God because God says to, and by doing that we are being obedient.
6. I am not telling you the TV thing, send us a hundred Dollars and God will send you a thousand. I always wanted to call one of those places that tells people that and give them my address, and tell them you send me the hundred and I ‘ll let God give you the thousand.
7. What I am saying is that if you give to God, you will become more like God, and God will see to it that your needs are met.
E. GIVING IS AN INVESTMENT IN ETERNITY.
1. (Mat 6:19 - 20 NIV) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal
2. Giving to God is the only safe investment for eternity. In light of today s Savings and Loan crises that has excellent application.
3. You ve heard before that, you cannot take it with you but you can send it on ahead. You send it on ahead by investing in people who are going there.
F. GIVING BLESSES ME IN RETURN.
1. There are so many promises I could have used. There are more promises regarding giving than anything else.
(Prov 11:25 NIV) A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
(Prov 22:9 NIV) A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
2. The bible is filled with verses that tell us that in giving we will be blessed.
G. GIVING MAKES ME HAPPY.
1. Jesus said, "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving."
2. We don t really believe that verse. If we did, we d be more interested in giving than we are in receiving.
3. There are two kinds of people in life: There are takers and there are givers. The happiest people in life are not the takers. The happiest people in life are the givers. No man has ever been honored for what he has received. He s honored for what he gives away.
4. Carl Menniger, one of the top psychiatrists in the nation said, "Giving is a criterion of mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill." The more healthy you are, the more unafraid you are to give away. The more you hold things in and are afraid to give away, is an indication that there s fear in your life.
III. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT TITHING?
A. What is tithing? TITHE MEANS A TENTH PART. It s a word that God uses all through scripture.
B. In the Bible, God tells us that we re to give the first ten percent of all we earn back to God. Giving less than ten percent is not tithing. Giving more than ten percent is more than tithing. Tithing means ten. Giving a tithe is giving ten percent of my income.
C. What s the difference between a tithe and an offering? Tithe is giving ten percent of my income. An offering is anything I give in addition to ten percent.
IV. So, Why should I tithe? There are eight reasons in God s word.
A. First, GOD COMMANDS IT.
(Deu 14:22 NIV) Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.
(Lev 27:30 NIV) "’A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
1. Notice that it say that the tithe is Holy. We could just stop right there. God could have said give ninety percent. But He just said ten. Simply because He says it, we ought to obey it. But He does give us other reasons.
B. Another reason is that JESUS COMMENDED IT.
(Mat 23:23 NIV) "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
1. Jesus commended it. In fact in Matthew 23:23, He commends the Pharisees forgiving -- the only thing Jesus ever commended the Pharisees for was their giving. He says that s one thing you guys are doing right.
2. Everything else you re off base but, in Matthew 23:23, He said, ‘Yes, you should tithe, but shouldn t leave the more important things undone either." They were tithing, but they weren t doing some other things. But, Jesus did say they were doing that one thing right.
C. TITHING DEMONSTRATES THAT GOD HAS FIRST PLACE IN MY LIFE.
(Deu 14:23 NIV) Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.
1. I can say God is first place in my life, but there are two things you can look at that will tell you what is really first place.
2. If you ll look at my schedule and if you ll look at my check book stubs, that tells what s really first place, no matter what I say is first place. The way I use my money and the way I use my time really indicates what s first place in my life.
D. Also, TITHING REMINDS ME THAT EVERYTHING WAS GIVEN TO ME BY GOD. "(1 Cor 8:6 NIV) yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1. When we sit down every week and write out our check, it is a reminder: "God, everything I have came from You.
2. If it weren t for You, I wouldn t have anything.
E. TITHING EXPRESSES MY GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR THE BLESSINGS HE S GIVEN TO ME.
1. (Psa 116:12 NIV) How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?
2. The answer to that question is found in (Deu 16:17 NIV) Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
F. GOD SAYS THAT REFUSING TO TITHE IS STEALING FROM HIM. That s pretty strong but that s exactly what He says.
(Mal 3:8-10 NIV) "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, ’How do we rob you?’ "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. 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.
1. Now. I know that you don’t like hearing that, but the fact is that God says Not a half of a tithe, a third of a tithe -- the whole tithe.
2. The Bible says that when I use money to pay bills that I ought to be tithing with, then I m robbing from God. I m paying bills with God s money. Money, that rightfully God says I m to give to Him.
G. TITHING GIVES GOD A CHANCE TO PROVE HE EXISTS AND WANTS TO BLESS YOU.
1. This is one of the most amazing promises in the Bible. God actually offers you a challenge and He says I dare you.
2. Start tithing and watch what happens. He not only makes a promise to bless you with more, but He promises to protect what you already have.
3. In what we read God 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.
4. God says, Test me. This is the Pepsi challenge verse of the Bible. There s only one place in the Bible that God says, "You can prove that I exist, one way to prove I exist. Tithe." Why?
5. Why does He choose finances? Of all the areas He could have chosen, as a test, why did He choose finances?
6. Because we spend most of our lives revolving around money. Making it, earning it, saving it, giving it, sharing it, and spending it. So God has used this as an acid test. He says, "I dare you! Just see if I won t fulfill the promises I ve made regarding tithing."
H. TITHING IS A PROOF THAT I REALLY LOVE GOD. (John 14:15 NIV) "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
1. And tithing is clearly commanded all the way through scripture. Some people say tithing is Old Testament law. No, it s not.
2. It s an Old Testament principle. In fact, tithing was established before the law was given.
3. The law was established with Moses. God established tithing from the very first. Abraham gave tithes 400 years before Moses was born. It s not part of Jewish law. It is a life principle before the Jewish nation even became Israel.
V. If tithing is important, what should I tithe?
A. The Bible makes it real clear that THE FIRST PART OF WHAT I EARN, NOT THE LEFTOVERS IS WHAT I SHOULD TITHE. There is a bumper sticker that says, "Tithe if you love Jesus. Anybody can honk!"
1. Do you have more month left over at the end of the money? You run out before the month runs out. The Bible says, "Honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income."
2. When Donna and I got married we made a commitment to tithe. That’s the way it should be. We owe everything to God. The first check that gets written is the tithe.
3. We ve done that in our marriage and God has been faithful. We haven t always had everything we wanted but we ve always had everything we needed and God has never failed us.
B. Where should I give my tithe?
1. The Bible is real specific about this. I SHOULD TITHE WHERE I WORSHIP. The Bible says that I m to give my tithe wherever I worship.
(Mal 3:10 NIV) 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.
2. In the Old Testament, the place of worship was called the Temple. In the New Testament it was called the synagogue or the church. You re to bring your tithe and offering to where you worship God. When you give to United Way, that s fine. But don t kid yourself That s not tithing. When you give YMCA, that s fine.
3. We give to other things at times ourselves, but it is not our tithe, our tithe goes to our church and it has been that way long before I was a pastor.
4. The Bible says tithing goes to the place of worship, your storehouse, His house.
C. When should I tithe?
(1 Cor 16:2 NIV) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income,
1. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT I SHOULD TITHE ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. What is the first day of every week? Sunday. What do you do on Sunday? You go to the place of worship. That s when you re to give. You re to give at the place of worship.
2. I would suggest you use weekly envelopes, and keep them at home, because it’s a visual reminder.
3. We also teach our children to tithe our kids have three places to put their money when they get it, the "Give" "Save, and "Spend" pile. He makes a dollar he gets --a ten cents to give, he gets ten cents to save, and a eighty cents to spend. It s a visual way to see, "I don t spend all my money". Some of it I give back to the Lord, some of it I save." Teach your children and they won’t have to learn it when they are older.
VI. Also, GIVE WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDES.
A. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT ATTITUDES ARE MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN AMOUNTS. That s why God developed tithing. It s the fair thing. God could have said, "Everybody give $50 a week." For some people, they don t make $50 a week. For some that s peanuts. It wouldn t be fair if God set an amount. Instead, He says a set proportion.
B. We re to give willingly. God is more interested in my attitude and obedience, than the amount.
(2 Cor 9:12 NIV) This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
C. It s according to what you have, not according to what you don t have. When God looks at our giving, He s not impressed with the amount. He doesn t look at the amount you give, He looks at the amount you have left over, in proportion to what you gave.
D. As your pastor, I want to relieve a little bit of guilt, never give under pressure. The Scripture says you are to never give under pressure. You re to give willingly, not reluctantly. If you feel pressured to give, you can say, "My pastor said I wasn t supposed to give." Because the Bible says if you give under pressure it s not the kind of giving God wants.
E. You give because God says so whether the church needs it or not. The issue is I need to give for my own benefit.
(2 Cor 9:7 NIV) Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
F. GIVE JOYFULLY. "God loves a cheerful giver." There is another Bumper sticker that says: "God loveth a cheerful give but He also accepteth from a grouch."
1. The Greek word for "cheerful" is the word we get our word "hilarious"from.
2. In the New Testament church, when they gave, it was hilarious. In the modern church today, when you take the offering, that seems to be the low point of the service. It shouldn’t, giving is suppose to be a part of our worship.
3. If you can t tithe cheerfully, what you need to work on is your attitude not your finances. The Bible talks about attitude, and God looks at your attitude.
G. GIVE EXPECTANTLY. (2 Cor 9:6 NIV) Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
1. God says it s like the farmer who sows seed. If a farmer had a tough crop last year and he only has a few seeds does he say, "I can t afford to plant this seed"?
2. No, He can t afford not to. He s got the choice to either eat it himself or plant it. He can eat it himself and that s going to last one meal. Or he can plant it. God says if you want a big harvest, you plant a lot. If you want a little harvest, you plant a little. How you plant is how you reap, it s up to you?
3. The point is that we need to give in faith, expecting God to supply our needs. It shows that our dependency is on Him and not us.
H. The Key to giving is in (2 Cor 8:5 NIV) And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.
1. This is really the issue. If God owns me, He s going to own my wallet. If He doesn t own my heart, He doesn t own my wallet. I need to first give myself to the Lord.
2. If I will really give myself to the Lord, then the other things will fall into place, if the other things are not falling into place then I need to ask myself, have I really given myself to the Lord, because that is the most important issue.
