Coin and Kingdom

Intro

Those of you who have gotten to know me best and have heard my preaching often, you should know I am stickler for context. Probably one of my greatest pet peeves are when I listen to a news source and hear a sound bite of an interview thats clearly been edited and doesn’t give the listener the proper context in which something is said.

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Politically skewed news sources which are most of them left or right leaning will take clips and frame them as saying one thing but if you are able to find the full statements, you can find someone’s words being manipulated or being taken out of context or at the very least not accurately representing a person’s intent.

Sadly this happens often. I’m sure I am not alone, in that I feel its never fun to be mischaracterized and I strongly believe as Christians we don’t fall victim to the temptations to mischaracterize others even people we disagree with.

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Christ followers are called to show class and operate with integrity. We can’t engage dirty tactics used against us with dirty tactics ourselves. We see this in Jesus own example. His enemies would constantly attempt to trap him in his words or use his words to misrepresent him. Was Jesus interested in politics? It didn’t matter, he could read a person’s heart no matter what side of the aisle a person was leaning. He was often attacked by the Pharisea and the Sadduccees, the right and the left. Jesus was not interested in playing the political games. He was not in pursuit of Earthly power. He had Kingdom goals with a compassionate present heart. Meaning, He had the BIG PICTURE in mind and taught his disciples to live with an understanding of the future, yet kept them present and did not ignore the suffering of others. You couldn’t trap Jesus in His words and it was challenging to even manipulate his words. He was authentic. He was the same to every person He connected with.

I touched on it a little bit the last time I spoke, but I want our church body to care about the things Jesus cares most about, and be upset about the things Jesus is most upset about, to show grace and compassion as he did, and only flip tables when he did. If God can care about even the smallest burdens we carry, can we care about the Kingdom causes the way we care about the coin in our pocket.

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Today we are going to look at context today more closesly behind one of Jesus’ most famous quotes, to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s but render to God what is God’s.”

Before we go any further, lets take a moment to pray.

If you have your Bibles with you, I want to encourage you to turn to the book of Mark, chapter 12.

In the gospel of Mark you find often notable examples of priorities of Jesus that are in contrast with those of the religious leaders. Within the chapters of MARK, especially in chapters 2-3 and 11-12, you can see controversies such as authority being exposed. Religious leaders spoke with authority and in many ways encouraged blind followers amongst the people. It wasn’t that the Jewish people weren’t encouraged to study the scriptures, but the priests, the rabbis, the pharisees were the interpreters, those qualified to speak. The problem was if they were really authentic interpreters of God’s word they would have recognized the Messiah as He was and not as they had proclaimed who they thought the Messiah to be, a liberator from Rome, not a liberator from Sin.

The hypocrisy is they would ally with Roman authorities when necessary and insight rebellion at other moments.

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Mark 12:13–17

Mark 12:13–14 “And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?””

Notice how he says, “We know you are “true”

The greek word here is “aletheis” which means to be truthful, not just honest, but brutally honest, a straight shooter. They say, we know you’ll tell us the truth, no matter who you will offend. They are even attempting flattery, attempting to butter Jesus up, acknowledging he truly teaches the way of God.

Have you ever met someone like this, someone who is buttering you up with flattery but has a hidden agenda. I’m not a fan of that. However even under false pretenses they were correct when they said to Jesus, “you are true” or you are a real one. Jesus was as authentic as it gets. He could also see directly through their intentions.

Asking publicly to Jesus if the Jews should be paying taxes to Rome or not.

If Jesus was a politician he might have sought a politically correct answer, or dodged the question altogether. You answer the question one way, and suddenly you insight hostility from the Jews and answer another way and you better believe the same people asking the questions would have sought to turn Jesus over to the closest Roman patrolman.

But Jesus once again refused to play the political game.

Mark 12:15–17 “But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.”

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The pharisees sought an either/or answer. However Jesus gave them an answer that was teaching the people about How God views goverment. God is not anti-government or even anti-establishment. Jesus was indicating a proper place in each realm.

At face value you might address my statement and say, “well Pastor you say he refused to play the political game, but he gave what can be considered a politically correct answer.”

I wouldn’t say that, Jesus kept it as real as could be. He calls out their intent with their question and gave them the right answer. If you study the New Testament you will see a clear teaching that God is the supreme authority and earthly kingdoms and governments are subservient to Him. As Christians we are called to be good citizens, to pay taxes and serve our communities. But also to clarify:

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Acts 5:29 “We must obey God rather than men.”

If entities in power require that which is opposed to God’s requirements and standards, We are to obey God. God is our highest authority.

This is the context of 1 Peter’s head scratching “Fear God, Honor the emporer.” statement

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1 Peter 2:13–17 “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

These verses along with verses to follow have been used attempting to justify oppression and even slavery.

What Peter is speaking towards is the conduct of Christ followers who by lawful submission actually rise above oppressive systems of power and placing trust in God no matter what, whether living in times of political freedom or a corrupted regiment.

Sadly words taken outside their context have led people to either biblically support oppression or lose confidence in the scriptures as our moral code for living.

Just as soundbites in the news don’t tell the whole story, proof texts often don’t accurately portray Biblical intent.

Here is where I think we often go astray is when we hold in such high esteem our personal viewpoint, we begin conflate our own will above God’s will, our own desires as if it is God’s will.

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There is corruption in the church, therefore I shouldn’t tithe.

Now tithing and taxation is NOT the same thing, but can you imagine explaining that to an auditor of your personal income. I am withholding my taxes until this policy or that policy is fixed. Thats not going to fly.

My friends we know corruption exists in this world and in our country yet we are not Biblically steered away from withholding our taxes or steered to break civil and federal laws, non-conflicting with God’s law.

Why then can we be guilty of withholding tithe or offerings as if the wealth we have acquired is ultimately ours and not His to begin with?

Here we go, Pastor is going to guilt us out of more dollars.

No I’m not.

That is not what today’s message is about. It’s about aligning our goals, priorities, and desires to be in line with God’s.

I have never once successfully guilted another person into the church, guilted them into baptism, or knowingly guilted someone into writing a check to the church.

Most times I’ve won arguments or debates about Biblical fundamentals, I’ve not seen or heard from those individuals again.

Jesus said, give to caesar what is His, BUT GIVE TO GOD WHAT IS HIS.

There is fundamental lesson, I believe we as Seventh-day Adventists need to give our utmost attention and consideration towards and that is we are stewards of the blessing God has entrusted us with. That goes far beyond monetary, but by my study of scripture, how we have been stewards of our time and energy and effort.

In the church, as a pastor I think most volunteers here know me to be someone who is sympathetic the plight of many things vying for our time. The same I would suggest towards things vying for offerings. For me it becomes a matter of self examining our priorities.

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Let me give an example. If I look back at when I was in the best shape of my life, was while I was in grad school. A friend of mine was pushing me to exercise with him at 5:30 in the morning. We had looked at our free time and had identified this early hour of the morning as the best time, maybe not ideal time, but he helped me see prioritizing doing the work was more important than finding an ideal time, because the ideal time did not exist. See at first I had been, “I don’t have time.” but the reality was although yes I was busy studying and working, the truth is exercise had not been the priority. My friend called me on it, and said…we’re all busy, but we do what we prioritize.

I think the same principle is true in giving. We spend what we prioritize. I think even the most faithful givers in this room (and trust me there are a lot of faithful givers in this room) but even they will acknowledge if we are being honest there are even more sacrifices for Kingdom building.

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I heard a statistic here recently in the Carolina Conference network of Seventh-day adventist churches, companies and groups making up nearly 200 bodies of believers, about 40% return a faithful tithe and less give offerings locally.

Now I am not the pastor who digs and learns who is giving and who is not and by what amounts etc. but I do know our faithful giving units is less that our avg attendance. This is nothing new nor as we can see among churches in the conference, our generous living certainly measure on the higher end of the spectrum. So I hope we can affirm the many who are faithful contributors here. But we do fall into same company with others when it comes to volunteering and sacrificing time 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. Again this isn’t to guilt, our church pulls from a larger pool of active and able bodied members than most. But I do hope rather than feel guilt or shame or feel defensive or unappreciated that we would all be challenged to take a look at our priorities.

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Let me talk to you about what the Raleigh church has done over the last 3 years and you can see the trajectory of the last 15 years.

In 2023, It set its highest tithe output in this church’s history of over $930,000.

In 2024 It was a little less but not overly concerning, just under $900,000

In 2025, We have seen steady tithe dollars, but still the number is trending lower by giving units. Right now if our avgs for year on tithe do not dip or grow higher, this church will have returned just above $800,000. That is nothing to sneeze at. God is blessing here at Raleigh church

For even greater context before 2019 this church had never regularly tithed over $600,000

You can go out in the hall and check the numbers, we keep them on the bulletin board for everyone to see transparently.

What we have identified is either a misunderstanding or a lessoning of priorities in tithing and local giving.

Some may not understand that all tithe dollars are sent to Carolina Conference office where it operates our network of ministries throughout the Carolinas on approximately 67% of what is collected amongst North and South Carolina. The rest helps support the world church, a chunk goes to the Southern Union which makes up the various local conferences across the south eastern states, a fraction goes to the North American Division, which supports the unions and conferences across North America, and then a fraction goes to The General conference which is spread out amongst the world church supporting church bodies world wide in the global church.

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The church has identified the local conferences to serve as the storehouses described in

Malachi 3:10 “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.”

How does the local church operate if the tithe dollars are spread out amongst the states, and throughout the world. It is first and foremost by God’s blessing as seen from faithful giving units who give generously with offerings.

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2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

For you longtime members I’m sure you’ve heard that verse shared plenty of times, would you like some context? Paul was collecting offerings for the early to help fund ministry in this grecco-roman world. He spends time in the preceding verses talking about the collections he’s already bragged about to other territories. He’s calling people to be faithful to the commitment they they have already made and not to renege on their commitment to God’s cause of spreading the gospel.

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In a similar vein, In October of 2023, our stewardship committee appealed to this church to begin a process we called the ARC Covenant as a reminder to the church it had entered into a covenant with God when it built the ARC building more than a decade prior that we would pay it off. Not even two years later the debt has shrunk from 1.1 Million to $650,000. Praise the Lord! Keep up the good work and keep giving faithfully.

However, we also encouraged our congregation to give sacrificially, meaning budgeting to give a percentage more, rather than redistributing selectively. Clearly you have largely been doing just as asked but we also have seen some shift giving to local budget in favor ARC covenant or for specific ministries. While I don’t like to get overly prescriptive, if all of our capable giving units were giving in offerings alongside their tithe, we would not be sniffing being in the red monthly. I’ll avg on the high side. If we we have an avg of 120 giving units returning tithe (I think you can see by looking around of a room that regularly houses 240+ we’d certainly like to see that giving unit avg increase) but out of 120 giving units we often see 85 or less who are giving regularly to the local budget.

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Man, Pastor we are getting a tongue lashing today!

No no, please do not let that be your final word. What I am suggesting is the full context Paul expressed to his listeners in Corinth.

2 Corinthians 9:6–12 “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”

Church family, even the wealthiest person in this church, if he or she was to sell all of their possessions and donate it to the church local budget, they would still have not outgiven God. Its not possible. But the heart of a person who prioritizes generous living with God causes will experience an indesribable peace in knowing you are working for the kingdom rather than simply collecting coins. We would never withhold our taxes, (I’m guessing) why would be tempted to be selective prioritizing giving to Jesus, whether it be monetary or the time in which we volunteer.

I will say this, in 10 years of serving in Pastoral ministry, a constant theme is that our largest donors percentage wise come from those who sacrifice the most personal time as well. They are truly sold out for Kingdom work. If you don’t think our Sabbath school teachers, VBS Leaders, adventurer and pathfinder leaders and ACA teachers are not self sacrificing, you would not be correct because while putting in the time in serving children they are often making purchases out of pocket, making some donations which don’t even get recorded. The church volunteers, AV leaders, praise teams, ministry leaders such as homeless ministry, mens ministry, baskeball ministry, church staff, and ACA staff consistently go beyond the call to service in sacrificing and prioritizing Kingdom building efforts. The same can be said about our building committee and those who have sacrificed for rennovation projects on this campus, whether it be our sanctuary lights, Sabbath school renovations, and you have already seen the transformation of our school. I’m purposely not naming names, but they don’t do it for the adulation or applause, they do it because they are sold out for Christ’s mission.

I hope you enjoyed Meggan’s song as much as I did. The key takeaway from the word’s ‘If it matters to you, it matters to the master.” Its amazing that God can see even the small and large things in our life and care about us. That we truly matter to the master.

Church family, I believe it should go both ways. If it matters to the master, it should matter to us. God cares how we treat His house. God cares how we treat each other. God cares how we represent His name to others. Tithes and offering are only one of the many examples that show what is inside our hearts. If you are walking out of here saying, well Pastor Ross is just trying to get in my wallet. Thats not whats happening. What I desire is for each of us to search our priorities and earnestly look at where we have been placing God’s vessell the church on our priority list. That may be monetary, that could be time given, that could be the devotional life we are giving Jesus. In today’s world we invest a lot in entertainment, why would our investment in the Kingdom be less?

It’s not always about how much we give of ourselves its that we would give in sacrifice.

Lets close by continueing in chapter 12 of Mark, a familiar passage. Jesus warns his listeners to beware of the scribes in their fine robes, those who takes seats of honor, who pray long prayers not for Christ but for personal recognition. These relgious leaders were the ones trying to get into the people’s pockets and for corrupt reasons.

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Mark 12:41–44 “And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.””

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Church family this church has a great history filled with people who sacrificed to purchase this land, to build this building, to build this school, to build the ARC. People could have been tempted to say they couldn’t afford to give. I say we cannot afford not to. Maybe its not wealth, maybe its time, maybe its prayers, but let us not withhold ourselves from kingdom cause. Coins are great, Pastor Lal was admiring my coin collection the other day in my office.

None of thats coming to Heaven with me. Your collections at home, your fancy cars, your homes, none of thats coming with you. The coin may seem cool, but the Kingdom that is something far greater.