Sermon Tone Analysis

Week 3:

Why I tithe

Welcome to week3 of our series called enough

This series is all designed not so that you will look at your life and decide that you have enough but that Jesus is enough for you

Last year I gave a sermon that I simply gave 4 reasons of why I tithe…And I have to confess to you, I have been preaching that same sermon once a year for the past 4 years...

Now I only do this with this one sermon: Otherwise, You will nearly never hear a repeat from me…I love exploring the Bible so much that re-preaching a sermon does not excite me at all...

But I had a retired pastor in my congregation who pulled me aside and said, if I was smarter I would have written that sermon, but if I were brilliant, I’d preach it once a year

His wisdom to me over the years was that more than sex, more than pride…Money was the thing that people were hung up on and the biggest area of problems for others…So he told me to preach it once a year shamelessly

And so just for this sermon, I have taken his advice and I am re-preaching the same content

So, today I would like to have a candid conversation with you about why I tithe.

Why do I faithful return the whole tithe to the storehouse?

I say I because I am talking about me.

Why do Desiree & I do this?

Why do I say return?

See when you borrow something from someone you return it to them, you don't give it to them…

The word return defines ownership….Desiree and I return the first 10% because its God’s.

This is not a charitable donation, this an act of worship…

It's a tithe…the word tithe is a mathematical term, it simply means 1/10th

It’s an act of worship that that God asks of us

And so I want to take this time today to talk about what it means to me…

So I get to tell one of my favorite tithe jokes right now…

Two men were shipwrecked near an island.

When they landed ashore, one of them began screaming and yelling, “We’re going to die! We’re going to die! There’s no food!

No water!

We’re going to die!”

The second man leaned calmly against a palm tree.

When the first man saw how calm his friend was, he went crazy and shouted, “Don’t you understand?! We’re going to die!!”Undisturbed, the second man replied, “You don’t understand, I make $100,000 a week.”

Dumbfounded, the first man looked at him and asked, “What difference does that make?!? We’re on an island with no food and no water!

We’re going to DIE!!!”

The second man answered, “You just don’t get it.

I make $100,000 a week and I tithe ten percent on that $100,000 a week.

Wherever I am, my pastor will be sure to find me!”

Most of us think.

Well the pastor probably would find that guy he was giving 10K per week for 52 weeks that's $520,000 per year!

Of course…Because the pastor and the church are all about the money!

Usually we say the pastor and the church are all about the money because we don't want to have an honest conversation about how often we are about the money…

You see business is about money

Business is for consumers

Church is about ministry

Church is for worshipers

Whenever we get these confused…we get into trouble

What you give is an act of worship, not a charitable contribution…because lets face it; the church is about giving ourselves away…

As an organization our church practices this.

We give away money to missionaries …we support them every month…Through something called the United Stewardship fund, we give money to new church plants.……we

give thousands of dollars to disaster relief…We give food to families in need, clothes to homeless people, socks to veterians…we host huge events for kids in the neighborhood…and many more we helped give assistance to…Our church practices this

The church gives itself away…No business does that

The way we operate is by what comes in the offering!

And yet the question we have is how do we stay operationally solvent and yet, give ourselves away

“So the church is all about money…” Really?

Now some prosperity groups out there are all about money…raising money so the ministry can get a second gulfstream…

There are a small number of churches out there that yes, they have made money their god

But the heart of the matter is that its not about money at all with us…Its about your spiritual formation, its about your life with Jesus

I care about your obedience!

I care about your relationship with God! That's what tithe reveals…your worship to God…So would you agree that as your pastor I should care very deeply about whether or not you tithe…?

See I don't believe its possible for you to really have trust and have intimacy with God, to really have peace with him… until you settle the financial issue in your faith

And many people pray and talk one way on this issue but they live financially in a way that is outside of God’s favor…and it doesn't have to be that way.

By the end of this service it could be a whole new beginning for you…

Now I want to give you the 4 reasons for me…why I tithe…

1.

Because I trust God with my economic life

I know this is super simple

I trust in the one true God.

God the Father…God the son…God the holy spirit…I actually believe this stuff…that Jesus died on the cross and has forgiven our sins…that there is a heaven and a hell…That Jesus Christ is the one way to the father…I believe this….

So I based my life on it!

I believe that God has established, this way of understanding his word…and he draws a number of lines...He says, hey if you want my favor in your life then I want you to live for me in every way

I think God says, hey live within the lines, the boundaries that I have drawn up and you will find favor with me….But if you talk and pray one way, but then act a totally different way…then you tie the hands of God…Your not the type of person that God will trust with his favor!

Open your Bibles with me to Leviticus 27

Leviticus 27:30-34

30 “‘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.

31 Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it.

32 Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord.33

No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution.

If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’”

34 These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

God told Israel hey this is just the way it is!

This is what I want from you…a tithe is 1/10 of everything in the land…

God doesn't want his people to become mistaken on this!

He wants his people to live inside of his favor and he wants to teach his people faith!

But towards the end of the Old Testament…God has to call his people to the carpet… They were not living the way that he had laid out

Malachi 3:6-10

6 “I the Lord do not change.

So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.7

Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them.

God is saying, You keep going outside of my favor…You pretend like I don't care…you act like I don't exist…You are acting like you are god of your own life…and particularly…in the area of economics… you act like I am not the author of economics and I am, I am the provider…

God says you keep walking outside of my favor so, what does he say next?

Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God?

Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings.

9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 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 there will not be room enough to store it.

God is simply saying, I am the source…acknowledge it…live inside of my favor…

See I tithe because every time I give its an acknowledgement of who God is…The provide for everything

And here God gives the second reason:

2. The Tithe Belongs to God

I have debated many Christians on this point who want to tell me where they stand on the matter…And you know what…opinions on this are great…But you can go into the Bible and God is like…start with my opinion…here is what I actually believe on the matter…

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;