Atomic Giving

Good Morning Journey, I have been looking forward to this message and this weekend since we planned it out back in November. I have loved every part of this series as we have been looking at the vision of Journey Church to Reach Wider and Walk Deeper with God and others. We have looked at 3 different habits that we believe have the potential and the power to transform your life as you continually develop as a Jesus follower and can transform our church as we strive towards our vision.

Atomic Habits are small changes for a large impact. These habits are not life altering in a single moment rather over time they change your life. They change your family, they change your church, they change your legacy. Atomic Habits are not DO based they are WHO based. They focus on your identity and not on your action. We also have been giving out systems to help you become all that God has called you to be. Week 1 we said that Relationships are the goal, and the system is being ministers of reconciliation. We gave you a box of relationship builders that you can pick a card every day to begin to be relationship minded. Week 2 We said we counter the worlds chaos by being spiritually disciplined people. We gave out bibles, journals and bible reading plans. Last week we said, We are contributors not consumers, and we challenged you to take a spiritual gifts assessment and pick a place to serve here at Journey Church.

These habits are actually commitments you make when you become a member here at Journey. Being a Member and Journey means you’re not going to be a consumer but a contributor. Being a member means that you are not just here for a good time but for a long time. Being a member means you are committed to Growing in your faith and support the church both by serving and by bringing back the tithe. And next week we have membership opportunities for all of you who have decided to make Journey church your home. (More info here.)

I know you all are ready to receive God’s word today, take out your notes and your bibles and lets pray before we jump into the message.

I am going to open up today by asking you a question and this is crowd participation, you know I love it when you start talking back with yes and amens, shout out what you think is the answer. When Jesus was in his earthly ministry, what is the #1 thing he spoke the most about? (Answers) It was the Kingdom of God. That Jesus came to institute the kingdom of God here on earth, that it is something we can be apart of here, but it is also something that we won't see in it’s full glory here on earth. That one day God will create a new heaven and a new earth, but today is your opportunity to be a builder in the kingdom. That as you believe in Jesus you get to spend eternity with God, but here on earth you have a mission from God to look like, act like, speak like, and build like you are a person of the Kingdom. You are to be Kingdom Minded and Kingdom Focused.

So if that is the #1 thing Jesus talked about can anyone tell me what the second thing is? It’s not love, or forgiveness, or faith. Rather it’s Giving. Jesus talked more about money and more about giving than any other thing while on this earth except the Kingdom of God. Now don’t pull back on me rather lean in because I believe God has a word for everyone in here today. If you were to take all the gospels and summarize them into a single word do you know what that word would be? Give…It would be give. John 3:16 says, “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.” God himself Gave his son Jesus for us.

So why did Jesus talk much about giving? He talked so much about giving because he talked so much about the kingdom of God. Because Jesus knew that it’s hard to be Kingdom focused when you are materially minded. Jesus knew that it’s hard to be Kingdom focused when you are materially minded. In Mark 10 there was a rich young ruler who came to Jesus proclaiming he has held fast to the commandment of Moses the Law. Jesus said great, sell all of your possessions and follow me. This rich young ruler turned around and walked away and Jesus spoke the famous phrase “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Jesus would say do not store up for yourself treasures in this world where moth and rust destroy, rather store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy. This world offers a lot of great experiences but if it takes our eyes off of the kingdom, well what good is it to gain the whole world yet lose our soul.

I find it interesting that as soon as the church begins to speak about giving or tithing everyone seems to get uptight. I want to let you in on something, I don’t want anything from you, I want everything for you. I believe that honoring God with the tithe is one of the greatest steps towards being Kingdom minded anyone can make. And as we will see you will reap what you sow. So today I want to talk about generosity. So I am going to say it like this to keep in step with the series. “If Generosity is the Goal, the System is tithing” Today I am going to speak about 3 types of Giving we see laid out in the Bible and how they affect our life.

1: The Tithe and Offering:

Before I explain what the tithe and offering is I first want us to have a proper perspective of what’s God’s and what’s ours. Psalm 24:1 answers this question for us when the Psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” - ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭24:1‬. Everything on this earth is Gods. You don’t own anything. In fact if first Corinthians it says you don't even own yourself but you were bought with a price, but that's another message for another day. The world is the Lord and all who live in it. So when it comes to our money and giving we have to understand these three basic principles. #1 God created you with the brain, tools, and intellect to earn a living. The reason why you earn a paycheck is because God has given you the ability to earn one. #2 The money you make isnt yours, it’s God’s and has given you the ability to steward it for his Kingdom and for your family. #3 It says in 2 Corinthians that God loves a cheerful giver. That when we are to give we are to do with a cheerful and sincere heart, thanking God for all the blessings he has given us. Those are three basic principles when it comes to giving that set us up to understand giving. 1, God created it all, 2, your money isn't yours to own but yours to steward, 3, God loves a cheerful giver.

So let's talk about the Tithe. Open your Bibles to Malachi Chapter 3 and we are going to start in verse 8. If you don’t know where Malachi is, that's ok, it's in between Zechariah and Matthew.

This is what Malachi says, “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” God is saying here that if you do not bring back the tithe to his storehouse that you are robbing God. So what is the Tithe? The tithe literally means 10%. 10% of what? Since the very beginning it has been the first 10% of your crops, fruits or work that you have done. In todays language it would be 10% of your paycheck. And tithing is something that happens regularly and on a schedule. Every time you get paid God is saying to bring back the tithe back to his store house. So here I have $100 God in his grace has given me $100, I earned it yes, but as we said before, the only reason why we have the gifts to earn money is because God has given us these gifts. And God says, hey you can have the 90% you have have $90 but you are to honor and to trust in me by bringing back the first 10% to my storehouse. You can keep 90% but you can make an investment into the kingdom of God by trusting in bringing back the tithe to the storehouse. So what’s the storehouse? The storehouse is your local church. The church that you attend, Journey church.

So what God is saying here is that you are robbing him if you do not bring back the tithe to the local church. Some people will say that this was a part of the law and therefore does not apply to us. Understand this, the tithe pre-dates the law of Moses, Cain and Able are the earliest we see of bringing the tithe to God. And it post-dates the law as Jesus affirms bringing the tithe back to the store house. I say brining back the tithe intentionally, because we do not see at any point in scripture that the tithe is considered giving. The main reason is that God has given you everything including your money to steward. You don’t borrow something from a friend a friend when you return it you don’t think “wow I’m generous” no, why? Because it wasn’t yours to give away, you simply bring it back. You don’t give the tithe you bring it back.

When you bring your tithe back  to Journey church in obedience to God, we see that our ability to give to those in need increase. We are able to provide bags of food to students and kids in our community who would go hungry over the weekend. When you bring back the tithe to Journey we have kids and students invested into every week so that they may live for Jesus. We see marriage counseling happening, mission trips supported, countless conversations with pastors and staff that have eternal impact. Lives are transformed by Jesus, community events that reach people who decided to come to church and their eternities are impacted because you brought back the tithe and supported the Kingdom of God. But God does not end at that sentence. He actually says something we do not see anywhere else in all of scripture. He 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 there will not be room enough to store it.” “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.” - ‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3:10-12‬ ‭Did you know that this is the only time in the entire bible that God says to test him? He doesn’t say test me in your faith, strength or courage, he says when it comes to the tithe test me in this and watch the blessing.

God says test me in this, and watch and see. We do not give to God so that we can receive a blessing, many false doctrines on tithing have said that when you tithe you get back. This isn't so, rather we tithe out of obedience to God because it comes from the overflow of our cheerful for all that God has done. We tithe so we are kingdom focused and not materially minded. We tithe to advance God’s kingdome here on earth. We don’t tithe to get, we tithe because we are faithful and obedient. However, this is where it gets tricky, God does say, test and trust me in this and watch and see what I do. Watch the blessing, and oftentimes we don’t realize the blessing until years later.

So what is this blessing that God says will happen? The blessing that God gave when you trust and test him in the tithe is twofold, its Provision and Protection. I have been tithing since I was 16 years old and could make my own paycheck. My first tithe was $16. I was taught from a young age watching my parents be faithful tithers that 90% of their income with God goes further than 100% without God. That may not make sense but that is Kingdom Economics. 90% with God goes further than 100% without God. And though times got tough, the house market crashed, we may not have had everything we wanted but we were never in need. Why because God provision happened at exactly the right time and I attribute that to the tithe. God might provide for you in times and circumstances you may never know about but it’s his provision for you.

The second is protection. The protection of God over your life. God as a blessing to you for bringing back the tithe could protect you from things that otherwise could’ve hindered you and you may never know. The protection of God in your life is something you may not realize in the moment, but as you look back you will easily see the fingerprints of God all over. When I was in high school my brothers and I collectively played Football, Basketball, Wrestling, Soccer, Volleyball and track. I have told you before that we were not in the best financial state, but not a single one of us broke a bone, tore a ligament, or had a long term injury. You can say it’s a coincidence, I call it the blessing of God on people who faithfully honored God with the tithe. We were provided protection from harm and kept from overwhelming medical bills.

as I said before the tithe means 10% and the storehouse is the Local Church that you attend. In this case, Journey Church. If you are giving 5% that's amazing keep going, but its not the tithe. If you are giving 7,8,9.5% thats amazing keep going. It’s not the tithe. If you are giving 10% but not bringing it back to Journey that great, but it’s not what God has said. He said bring back the whole tithe to the storehouse. Which means, if you, or if I are not tithing, bringing back the tithe to our church, we are not in the testing or the blessing of God.

If you want to honor God in the tithe this might mean looking at your budget and rearranging what’s there. Canceling subscription, changing date nights or vacations. I get it it may look like a sacrifice now, but you will look back and realize the sacrifice is worth the reward. For some of you you may look at your budget and say, “there is nowhere I can rearrange” This is where faith comes in and trusting God at his word. This is why I love the tithe. For the someone who gives faithfully $30 a week, it’s the same as someone giving $300 in the tithe. God doesn’t look at the overall number, he looks at the tithe. I challenge you today to begin to bring the tithe back to God and back to the storehouse.

Lastly, why is the tithe so important, is because we never see 1 example in all of scripture where we tithe in heaven. Not a single moment in all of the Bible do we see that we are to bring back a tithe on the other side of eternity. This means, that we have an opportunity to do something here on earth that we don’t get to do in heaven. That is a profound statement that I don’t want to rush by. God is giving us the opportunity to trust in him, bring the tithe back to the church here on earth, and we don’t get this opportunity in heaven. This is how serious God is with tithe and our ability to trust him in our finances.

2: Free Will Giving:

Free Will Giving is a above and beyond the tithe and it doesn’t have to be brought back to the church. We see in 2nd Corinthians that that Corinthian church wanted to give to other people because others were in need or want. This is an amazing thing because before Jesus arrived no one really cared for other people. Yet in free will giving this is a “where do I give” mindset. This is when you hear a group member in times of need, where do I give. When there is a cancer diagnosis, where do I give? When there is natural disasters, where do I give. A Go fund Me that captures your heart…where do I give? We have a generous church, Some of you give to the hope effect, hope of the martyred, other non-prophits and causes that you care for. When we give thanksgiving dinners out, or Christmas gifts to the community you step-up and donate. These are parts of free-will giving. This is generosity beyond the tithe. You have already tithed, so free will giving is giving in excess, it doesn’t take the place of the tithe.

Someone here has a heart for the next generation and you want to give to support camps, and I am all about that. But that type of generosity doesn’t take place of the tithe rather it’s above and beyond it. This past Christmas our church blessed our staff with a financial gift and I want to say thank you on behalf of the staff! Thats what a free-will gift looks like, but it shouldn’t take the place of the tithe. It’s giving even more because God gave you the ability to do it. Free-will giving means you give out of an abundance even if you don’t get a tax write off at the end of the year.

My dad is someone who models this free will giving. He’s a cabinet maker with Phoenix Cabinet Company, and a few years ago we did a small kitchen job for a single mom of 3. It was a small Job, and my dad went to do a final walkthrough, answer any questions and collect the final payment. We are a family business and we look at clients as people, not dollar signs, so that means we get to know people and their stories. Well as my dad learned more of this woman’s story he found out that she has been saving for 3 years, and she never thought she would have her dream kitchen. It was a small job. So she hands my dad a check of $2,783. And he rips is up. After hearing her story he says, “you’ve paid me in full.” Thats free will giving. Thats generosity.

Last type of giving we see in Scripture is what we call Sacrificial Giving:

This type of giving isn't often, but it is a strong impression of the Holy Spirit in your life to give sacrificially. We see this in the book of Acts 2 where new believers sold their possessions, their lands and homes and gave it to the church to advance the kingdom. This may be the Holy Spirit telling you to pay for someone’s college, or as the church does a building campaign you give above and beyond you give sacrificially. This might be 100k, 500k, or million dollars towards advancing Gods kingdom. But in these moments God isn’t looking for equal money, he is looking for equal sacrifice.

In the early part of 2014 my wife karlee have been marriage for just over a year, and we were attending a church that I was a part of their residency program, and we knew in 8 week we would be on staff at a different church that was already lined up. And they were doing a campaign to launch more campuses called. “Step Up” We had 4k in the bank at that time which to us was a million dollars. So we decided that 2k would be a sacrifice to us. As we sat there on commitment Sunday we were both were convicted by the Holy Spirit that 2k was not a sacrifice rather it was the amount we were comfortable enough to give. So we talked, we said ok $2500 a sacrifice…no. But 3k would be, and that day we gave 3k to a church we knew we wouldn’t be apart of in 8 weeks because we both felt God telling us to give sacrificially. That time might come for you, and it might come for me again, but to give sacrificially to advance the kingdom is an easy choice.

So Atomic Habits. Bring Back the Tithe, Free Will Giving, and Sacrificial Giving.

I was thinking this week, i have been tithing since I was 16, I have sacrafically gave to campaigns and buildings, given more money in free will giving than I even know. But I was thinking if someone came up to me and said, “Cam I can give you every dollar down to the cent back in what you tithed, gave or sacrificed ” But they said you could have it all back, but here’s a catch. Any good it has ever done will go away. Any salvation it has ever attributed to, any baptism, any kid who went to camp, any student is supported on a mission trip, any marriage it helped, any counseling it ever gave, any building that was ever built because of it. Any staff member that we hired to advance a ministry, any life it saved through a meeting with someone though a church. Any bills that were paid for the community, any cancer treatment you helped pay for, any good it ever did would be taken away but you got your money back…would I do it? No…of course not.

At the end of the day, “You never miss the money you freely give away.” When you are kingdom focused over material minded, you never miss the money you freely give away.

So here is my challenge to you as we end today.

If you are not tithing, bringing back the whole tithe that you would make a commitment today to start tithing. This might mean going back home and looking over your budget. It might mean having a great but hard talk with your spouse about your budget and seeing what needs to be done to start bringing back the tithe. It might even look like stepping out in faith and believing in God for the blessing that is to come. Or giving above and beyond the tithe and enter into the offering.

It might mean that God is asking you to give sacrificially to the church, you have the impression of the Holy Spirit and you just have to obey.

And if you are tithing, this week I want to challenge you to give to someone in need and show them the love of Jesus.

There is a card on your seat with this commitment, as you leave today take the card, place it in our tithe and offer baskets as you make the commitment. It is a step in faith, but it is one of the single greatest steps you can take to stretch your faith.

Here is the take away: “We are Journey Church we are faithful Tithers and we are Generous to Others.