The Gospel and Money - 7 Principles - Pt. 5- The Portion that God claims is His and calls to be returned!
The Culture of Money - 7 Biblical Principles of the Gospel and Money • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewThe Gospel and Money
Notes
Transcript
GREET EVERYONE-
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
2- Tuesday 10-31 - Hallowwnies -
3- Sunday November 5 - Prayer for the persecuted church before worship
Baptism Class after worship
4- Saturday - 11-11 Stonewater Women's Ministry “Cultivate” kickoff gathering - More info coming.
Stonewaters Cultivate Women's Ministry exists to engage all women into a multiplying relationship with Jesus Christ by cultivating an encouraging, loving, and caring community through) connection, prayer, and service as we reach others for Christ.
5 - Sunday 11-12 Prayer Sunday
6 PRAYER CARDS and PRAYER SPACE.
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to Genesis 14 vs 17-20 today as we continue exposing what Jesus says about the 7 Biblical Principles of the Gospel and Money in our fall teaching series “Living well in a culture of money”
God in His word talks about money some 2800 times in the scripture - The Bible deal with the matter of money becasue money matters.
What the scriptures tell us is that there are money matters that allow us to live well in this culture of money.
God has an intention and a purpose with money and as we let the principles and precepts of Jesus work in our our life, we will see an enjoy a thriving, deepening and abiding relationship with Jesus as we live and serve Him in a culture that is obsessed with having, inquiring and accumulating money. A culture that idolizes comfort, convenience, safety and security.
What does that look like in our life?
We let Jesus be Lord, we ultimately surrender our decision making as to how the money in our life gets distributed.
WE let the redeeming work of Jesus, redeem out time, talent and treasure as we set aside, consecrate to him the first born moments of our day, our time in relationship with Him, the first fruits of our talent in serving Him as part of His body, the First-fruit of our treasure as we bring to him first of our treasure - all so he can have regard and bless and redeem what is remaining in all of these areas.
We let the fallen nature of money and the urgency of the Gospel, drive our priorities for the advance of the Gospel as the first priority with the financial resources God allows to flow through our life.
Knowing all the while that what we bring to Jesus is enough! We are sufficient to be used by Him, we come to Him with open lives, and op[en hands, letting go of every desire other than Him, because He multiplies what He is given, for His purposes and for His glory.
This morning we begin to understand that there is a portion of our production, a portion of our increase, a portion of our income that God sees as separate and IS his.
Lets look at some passages of text this mornings as we begin to unpack and unwrap the 5th Biblical Principle of living well in a culture of money. “The Portion that God says to Bring to him”
TRUTH
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.
5 As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6 And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps.
9 Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
PRAY
MY PRAYER FOR THE SERIES AND THE MESSAGE
My prayer for this series is that we would understand from the full counsel of Scripture how the Gospel and money Intersect.
That God has given resources to you and to me for 2 things
1 - to advance the Gospel and 2 - Human flourishing.
There there is nothing evil about money but there is a purpose and an intent that God has with money and that is to Advance His kingdom and for human flourishing.
My Prayer for this message is three fold:
First - that we would experience the Love of God, the Love of Jesus in such a profound way that God’s love for us would change us.
Second - That we would receive clarity from the Scriptures to what God IS saying TO US about this principle and we would know that HE has Always said this.
Third - The the Holy Spirit would bring to our hearts Comfort and Conviction all at the same time.
Conviction - That we would all be convicted in whatever area of what we do, how we act, and choices we make, that need to change, as HE is working to conform us into the Likeness of Jesus -
Comfort - That He would comfort us, that As HE changes us in what we do, how we think and the choices we make, we would have Trust that God has us, God is for us, He knows what is best and our lives and our relationship with Him are all improved and deepened as we are obedient to the promptings of His spirit, working with in us.
GOSPEL
God loves us! That is good news!
God love us so much that He sent Jesus, into this world,
And Jesus who knew no sin, became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. - and that is good news
For is is God in Christ, Reconciling the world to Himself and not counting our trespasses against us, because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and His blood that satisfied the wrath og God that was against us.
And that is Good news!
HE has given us all a ministry of reconciliation, ambassadors of Christ - to plead with others “be reconciled to God”
and that is Good news!
START
This morning, the Scriptures are going to open us up to an Idea that most of us don’t think about on a regular basis and that is the Idea of Portion -
You might think - Portion?
Yes Portion -
You see there is a Portion of our income - Of our Increase - of our production that God says “bring that portion to me”
You see one of the Theological truths that over arches all 7 of these biblical principles is that God allows financial resources to flow through your life and my life for two reasons and two reasons only.
The Advancement of the Gospel and as such His kingdom which is the mission of the assembled church.
AND
Human flourishing - Which certainly the church can participate in, but we have a personal and individual responsibility to do so.
BUT here is the question with that Theological truth.
Is there a portion?
Is there a part of my income and your income, of what God provides to us through our work, or growing crops that is relegated to one part or the other.
Is there a part or a portion that God says He has set apart for one of these purposes and one part for another?
Is there a portion that God intends and plans to be used for the advance of the Gospel and His kingdom?
I want to propose to you 2 things -
1- God wants to use 100% of our the financial resources to be used for the advancement of His kingdom through the proclamation of the Gospel.
For HE says that we are to love Him with all our heart soul mind and strength.
2 - What He says is “Bring a Tithe to me”
BACKGROUND -
Now I am not sure what you think when you hear the word “tithe”
I think there are lots of things that can Go through your mind.
I think for a lot of us there is a “legal attachment” to the word Tithe - Like it is a legal requirement.
For some of us it is a word that comes with a pretty nasty after taste to it from our time in church.
For some we think “old part of the bible - Were a new testament - we are a new part of the bible people. And so when we hear that word “tithe” we simply say - “Nope”
For Some I think it is even possible we have never heard the term used in any sort of practical way.
Let me start with a definition:
Tithe - is another word for a certain percentage -
Tithe means Tenth.
It means 1 - Tenth
“A tithe” would be “One tenth”
So lets Spend some time learning about - A tenth
UNPACKING
In the Genesis Passage of Chapter 14
We read a very interesting Historical Narrative.
Abram and clan had been on a rescue mission to save some of his cousin Lot and family.
Who had been taken captive by the kings who went to war to take captive Sodom and Gomorrah.
When Abram hear that his cousin had been taken captive Abram took 318 men, from his household, all who had been trained for warfare, to take back his relatives, all the people and all their possessions.
and Abram was successful -
After the Battle was over the Kind of Sodom travels to meet Abram.
I don't know what the King of Sodom does or say.
But realize this -
Now he is not Abraham yet - His name has not been changed - He is not yet knowing where his ultimate promise will take place.
He has not arrived to where God had said He would take him when He called him to leave the land of His fathers.
and Here is what happened -
Out of seemingly nowhere, this guy Melchizedek, who is the King of Salem - A kingdom not mentioned in the list of kings who were at war.
and believe this not mentioned in ANY of the scriptures at all up to this point.
Here is what happens - This king of Salem, Blesses Abram - He brings bread and wine, they have a meal together, and this Melchizedek, the King of Salem, which means King of Peace - Blesses Abram -
Here is what he says:
Blessed be Abram by God most High who is the possessor of heaven and earth -
This king of peace pronounced that Abram be blessed by God Most High, who has possession of everything.
And then He says speaks a blessing to God most high. As he gives credit for the victory not to Abram and his 318 men trained for battle -
But he gives credit where credit is do - And that is to God who delivered God’s people.
Here is what is crazy - They didn't even know they were God chosen people yet.
Here is how Abram responded to the priest of the most High God -
He gave him 10% of all that he owned.
That was 10% of all of his increase. Because when Abram started out as a young boy He basically had nothing.
So Here we are - were a little less than 500 years before Moses, about 1900 years away from Jesus.
Hebrew says - This Melchizedek was a foreshadowing of Jesus!
This leaves us with a question in regards to the intersection of the Gospel and Money and the 5th principle that says :there is a portion that God calls for its return”
Why did Abram choose a 10th?
A very specific portion.
Why didn’t he Choose a 12th?
or an 8th?
Why a 10th?
A very large question is now before us:
Is it possible that God, long before He called Abram to leave the land of his fathers, the Ur of caldese, all the way back to the beginning that God established that He gets a 10th?
He gets a tithe?
Lets look back -
“In the course of time” There is a Texas phrase we use in its place when we speak Texan -
“After a while”
Basically it means when Cain and Able grew up and started farming and ranching -
Cain was a Farmer and Able His brother was a rancher.
Well after a while can brought an offer ing to the lord and so did able - Cain brought some of his produce and Able brought the first born of His flock and the first of their fat portions -
God had regard, blessed and recieved Able’s offering becasue it was of the firstborn of his flock and it took faith to give the first born.
Able put God first!
Cain didn’t bring the first fruits of His produce - HE brought “an offering” as if we could read into the text where we hear Cain say “here ya go God”
The Story goes on that God’s blessing of Able’s offering and His Rejection of Cains offering made Cain mad.
VS7 Says that God make this promise to Cain - “if you do well you will be accepted - IF you do not do well Sin is after - “it crouching at your door” God says
Here is an interesting fact -
The Greek translation of the Old Testament - Translated from the original languages Hebrew and Aramaic into Ancient Greek -
This work was done about 300 hundred years before Jesus.
Here is what verse 7 says: and I will use modern english
And the Lord God said to Cain, Where and when do you become vexed, and where and when did your countenance fall? If you had offered what was right, but you didn’t divide properly, didn’t you sin? Hold your peace.
This is what the then modern translation of the Old testament said 300 years before Jesus and why nearly 300 years after Jesus Church leaders and even the Latin translation of the Bible all tie Gods rejection of Cains offering not only to them not being first fruits but also to His “not dividing properly”
So what we can conclude is that Cain not only did not give of the first fruit but he also did not give a tithe.
BUT PASTOR - The law had not been given and where there is no law there is no sin -
Interesting you bring that up.
In His book “the tithe in Scripture” Henry Lasdell records the result of historical research and says:
“The picture-writings of Egypt, the cuneiform tablets of Babylonia, early writers of Greece and Rome inform us that before the Bible was written, and apart from the Bible, it was almost a universal practice among civilized nations for people to pay tithes, or 10% of the production to their gods.
Maybe Just Maybe it was established in the hearts and minds of Mankind becasue they were so very thankful for all that God had done to bless them, and sustain them and to deliver them from their enemies and those that would oppress them.
Here is something interesting
Able - Firstborn 10th
Noah - some of “every clean animal and clean bird” Was it a 10th? unknown
Jacob has this dream with a ladder in it -
Here is what is promised in the dream -
God promised to bless Jacob - Whose name would later become Israel -
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob then makes this promise to God!
22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
We see the 10% as established in the hearts and minds of God’s people.
And becasue we see this in the scriptures, taught in the church for nearly 300 years, from Genesis forward as well as seeing it in antiquity of sources outside the scriptures.
by the time we get to the Law -
Leviticus is simply stating something that needs to be, becasue it always has been.
30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.
Here is what is interesting - one of the Principles we looked at was the redeeming work of Jesus, That we place God first in everything - Because Jesus was His first born, first fruit. SO we give God his first portion becasue He said “All the first born “are mine”
Same Language and same emphasis here in Leviticus.
The Tithe - IS THE LORDS- it belongs to HIM.
The Scriptures say : it , Referring to the Tithe” is “ a statement of perpetual being. “Holy” to YHWY.
Meaning “it is separate”
Here is what this passage has just laid down for all of us.
A 10th of all our production, of all our income, God considers “Separate”
To God, in His eyes and in His economy, 10% of everything, He looks at as separate and He says what makes it separate is it IS his.
This is why when the Bible talks about Firstborn in the redeeming work of Jesus, and When the Bible talks about the portion that belongs to God - It down not use the word Give - It uses the word “Bring”
You see loved ones you cannot Give what is not yours - You can bring to the rightful owner, but you technically are not giving.
2 Chronicles 31:5–6 (ESV)
5 As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6 And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps.
Israel - The people of God who were delivered over and over again, from the enemies of God and His people by the very hand of God -
Who we’re under the leadership of King Hezekiah who was about doing one thing - Leading the heart of His people back to being the people that God had called them to be.
And one of those things that we see is a principle and a precept for the heart of God people to be turned back to God is putting God first in every area, and one of those is to practically and behaviorally bringing to God what God has said, from the beginning, is His.
SO the writer of Proverbs - The very book of wisdom that God lays out his divine wisdom to us. Says
9 Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
So the Scriptures - Lays before us from the whole council of scripture and even from ancient history.
That God has called for a portion of the increase that He blesses us with to be brought to Him.
and I hear it already:
Pastor that was old testament were a new testament church. God was speaking to Israel not to the Church.
The tithe doesn't apply -
If it did pastor - Why didn't you just use
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
the passage of text that says to Bring the whole tithe into the store house. And that prophet was speaking directly to Gods people then.
We are not under the whole tithe.
You say - What do you mean pastor.
The whole tithe in this passage of text represents 3 tenths of our production’
One for the Priests - One for the Temple and feasts - and One for the poor and the aliens.
and YES thankfully - we are relieved form three tithes.
In the new testament - God simply says to Honor Him and bring to him the portion he calls his to advance the Gospel and advance His kingdom and that is 10%
You might even say “Pastor - I think I am missing something” I don't remember reading Jesus affirming or suggesting or commanding a tithe to be brought to God.
Well, over all Jesus calls for Everything to be surrendered to Him,
But Jesus did affirm the tithe, as something that God people are correct in doing. in fact Jesus says “we should have done it”
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Here is what is happening in Matthew 23.
Jesus is scolding the leaders of Gods people, the Pharisees, in a very public way.
These leaders, who know what the words and commands of God are go about instructing Gods people to do what God says. What is worse is they chide and punish and scorn people for not following the instructions.
Here is why Jesus is publically scolding them and telling the people to not do what they say to do.
Because the Pharisees say one thing and don't do what they say.
You see when we take on the Spirit of Pharisee - we focus our religious conversations towards the Law and not the principles and precepts that Give life - and We live as hypocrites.
You see the leaders of the day were Hypocrites and this is why Jesus was so mad at them.
But look at what Jesus said about the tithe.
You tithe in mint and dill and cumin. In other words. You made sure that you tithed even the smallest of your increase -
Jesus says “which you were right to do”
Here is what we need to see in that… it is the only thing that Jesus says the Pharisees got right.
But he says “the problem is you didn't use the rest for human flourishing - You neglected the things that are gospel centric - Justice and Mercy and faithfulness.
You got the tithe right - But you missed human flourishing -
WORSHIP AND PRAYER TEAM
I want to end with these two things -
First off - What happens at my house - I shared with you before that when Brandi and I get paid by electronic means the first thing that leaves electronically is our first fruit.
and it is 10% of our increase -
We teach and we practice First Fruit Tithing and we have done that years and years now.
The second thing - I want to leave you with.
God’s promise to you and to me is that He will bless you and me when we put Him first in everything we think, in what we trust, in how we live and in what we do.
God loves you and me - He established from antiquity that there is a portion of the blessing of Income and increase that He considers separate, holy from all the rest and he calls for its to be brought to Him.
All of us to know that HE has already blessed us with Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ Jesus.
He has delivered us from the clutches of the evil one and adopted us as His children.
So we bless Him by allowing the principle of His portion to be active in our lives for the specific purpose of advancing the Gospel.
You might say :Pastor do I have to bring the tithe to the Local Church” TO which I would say -
I cannot answer that question to the fullness that is down well.
So please allow me the grace to take a shortcut.
The answer is yes
Here is why - becasue the Local Church is Plan A to advance the Gospel and build the Kingdom there is no plan B in the Scripture.
STICKY POINT PRAISE TEAM AND PRAYER TEAM
APPLICATION OR IMAGINE
PRAYER TEAM!