Giving Back

Last week I told you I didn’t care if you tithed or not and that is a lie. What I meant to say is that I am not worried about not having enough money in the church budged because you did not tithe.

I believe that tithing and service are linked by their purpose. The purpose of your tithes is not so that God afford to run the church. In fact a lot of what we pay for is not required for God to have a church. The first churches had no buildings, Sunday school materials, air conditioning or buildings, just people who loved Jesus. The first churches had no youth directors or church programs just people who dedicated their lives to loving Jesus and serving his purposes.

So what are tithing and service about?

Matthew 6:16–24 NASB95

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. “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 neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Now this passage comes right after Jesus’ teaching about prayer and right before he talks about not being anxious. God tells us he knows our needs and he will take care of us so it’s not about him needing our labor or our wallets, it must be about something else.

Have you ever wondered why these two are grouped together. Fasting is giving up something for a particular purpose. Fasting was not done just so you could go on a diet it was done to make a sacrifice of something you really wanted so that you could demonstrate your commitment to what you were fasting for. Fasting was accompanied by prayer and by a special focus on the things of God usually with a particular goal in mind and often when a life changing decision had to be made.

Some people would just fast so that everyone could see how spiritual they are just like some people would tithe so that everyone could see them. I once knew a man, a man I respected greatly who kept a particular church alive financially. He did not tithe even though he was wealthy, what he did was whenever the church got in a financial he would bail the church out. When the AC unit went out he payed for the new one, need money for a church project go to him and he would provide. The funny thing is that if this man had tithed the church would have been flush and would not have needed to be bailed out or rescued, but then no one would have known who was responsible for paying the bills.

I have known pastors who like to do everything in the church or make all of the decisions in the church and I think sometimes it is because of their ego. I had a pastor I loved, one who taught me a lot, who once told me that he should make most if not all of the decisions and have most or all of the control because he knew more about the church than any other person and he had more at stake. After all, he said if the church goes under everyone else just has to find a new church I have to find a new house and a new job. I have more at stake than anyone else so I should have more say than anyone else.

if tithing was about paying the bills and service was about getting the job done I would probably agree with both of those ideas, but I don’t think that is the case.

Jesus tells us to be careful where we store up treasures because where our treasure is our heart is also. It is a fact of life that we put our time and our money where our heart is. In other words whatever is most important to us is where we try to spend our time and our money.

If your income was suddenly cut in half what bills would you pay and what bills would you let go? Many would pay the mortgage first so that they had a place to live and the electric or gas bill next so that they could have heat and air and lights. From there they might pay the insurance to protect those things or the car payment or some might even pay for their favorite kind of entertainment, Satellite TV or the internet. Of course when the pantry started to get bare or the fridge empty food would move right up the list.

If we really sat down and thought about it and we really had to cut our budget down most of us could probably do so. We would still buy food but we might buy less pizza and more beans. We would still need shelter but maybe we could get by in a place not quite as nice as the one we have. For most of us the types of food we eat, the vehicle we drive and the place we live are more heavily influenced by our own taste and comfort than they are by absolute necessity. In other words we have chosen to put our money and our efforts into something that brings us pleasure or comfort. and that’s OK. but let me ask you a question.

Suppose you saw a child who was dressed in clothes that were really too small for them and seemed to be really stained and worn. Suppose you noticed that the child sat in a car seat whose padding was filthy and torn and suppose the child seemed hungry a lot and you had a chance to observe that the child lived on cheap cereal without milk and Romen noodles. Maybe they are a poor family and that is the best they can do in which case God may be hinting to you that you should help.

But suppose this child was accompanied by both parents and the parents were dressed in the latest fashion and drove a really expensive car. Suppose you observed that the parents dined at the finest restaurants and then took the child home to eat the cheapest food they could find, what would that say about the parents. Would you consider them selfish or cruel, would you say they love their child, would you become angry with them, would you feel that they had done wrong.

Suppose another family the child had all the benefits of money but the parents hired someone to care for the child and never spent any time at all listening to, playing with, or caring for the child. Suppose they went out every night to enjoy themselves with their favorite hobbies but never had time for their own children would you say they loved their kids, would you say they were good parents? What would it say about their priorities, what would it say about who or what they loved most.

If someone were observing you in the way you observed these parents what would they learn about your priorities and what would they think you loved the most.

My daughter in law does taxes for a major tax service and one of things that happens is someone will drop off all their tax papers and when there is no one in the office for an appointment the preparer will do their taxes from the dropped off paperwork as they have the time. This works great since the person doesn’t have to wait and the preparer can work on it during slack times. If you dropper your tax paperwork off to be done would your tax preparer know that you think the church is important by preparing your taxes, would they know that you have a heart for the lost, that you care about the poor, that you love people, could they tell all that from your checkbook and your receipts?

What if a private detective were hired to follow you around, would his notes show that you make time for God, for prayer, would he find evidence of you serving others, would he be able to report that you are a person who puts the needs of others ahead of your own?

You see I don’t think tithing is about God needing you do finance his work, I think God could handle that without your money. I think tithing is about you putting your money into what you think is important. I don’t think service is about God needing your help to carry out his mission, I think he can handle it. I think service is about you putting your heart and soul into something that is important to you, into the ministry God has given you.

The more you give to the church and the more you work in the church the more you will feel like you have invested in the church and the more you will be interested in the things of the church. If you show up at Christmas and Easter and put a dollar in the plate and the church dies you probably won’t even notice until next Christmas or Easter and then you’ll just go down the street to the next church.

If you go to church every Sunday morning and drop a five in the plate you would be inconvenienced if the church shut down. If you are there every time the doors are open and many of your friends are there, if you have helped to build that church, if you have worked and served, painted the walls and taught the children, if you have memories and good times and people you love in the church then you won’t let it die, and neither will your friends.

You see the more of your time and effort and money are involved in the things of God the more of your life will be invested in the things of God, the more of your memories that will be about and around the things of God. The more time and money you spend doing God stuff the more interested you will become and the more you will have invested in God’s work and God’s plans, the more you have invested the more you will be looking for what God is doing and the more you will see. Investing your time and money in God causes you to be more interested in God and what he is doing,

If your hobby was fishing you would acquire a few rods an reels and some tackle. Over time you might get better and more expensive equipment maybe even a boat. Having the better equipment would make it more fun so you would do it more and spend more making it more fun and so on. You would probably want to take your friends and your kids or grand kids with you because you would want them to have the same pleasure that you have. You would spend time with fishermen talking about fishing. You might watch fishing shows or read fishing magazines. The more time and effort and money you spend on it the more you would get out of it and so the more you would want to do it.

What if your hobby was God. What if your time and effort and finances were used in the pursuit of God. Would you find yourself hanging out with God’s people and talking about God. As you spent more time and effort and money on the things of God would you want your friends and family to get the same things out of it that you did?

Where your treasure is there your heart will be also, want to change your heart to be more in line with God, move your treasure and your heart will follow, move your heart and your treasure will follow.