A Perfect Size Paycheck

Kingdom Assignments

kingdom assignments

A few weeks ago I suggested that we pay attention to the needs around us, and if possible help out. It’s part of CMA — Christ’s Method Alone. He spent time with people, listened with compassion, and ministered to their needs. If you see a need, maybe that’s God giving you an assignment.

There has been a development. One of our members loved the idea of Kingdom Assigments and they gave me 10, $100 bills to give to people who feel like they have an assigment from God and who need a little seed money.

There are only two conditions:

this money must bless someone outside of these walls. It should impact your neighborhood or work or someone outside of this church.

Come back and tell us a brief story about it in the next 90 days.

I have the money here with me. I’m hoping there are 10 people who the Lord has been impressing with a kingdom assignment that could benefit from this $100? If so, I’m going to give you a chance to come forward and get a $100 bill at the end of my message.

…

Introduction

series title

Sometimes getting help in a business can be a real challenge. Especially when you ask for it in a way that can be easily misunderstood. Consider the following job postings taken from actual want ads in newspapers around the country.

next

Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.

next

Wanted. Man to take care of cow that does not smoke or drink.

next

Girl wanted to assist magician in cutting-off-head illusion. Blue Cross and salary.

next

Wanted. Widower with school-age children requires person to assume general housekeeping duties. Must be capable of contributing to growth of family.

next

Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. PO Box 322, Oakview, CA 93022. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

Of course, sometimes the writers say it like it truly is. Consider the want ad that Earnest Shackleton posted in a 1913 London newspaper as he prepared for his famous expedition to the South Pole

next

“Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”   

God is also wanting people to join Him in His venture, to contribute to His mission, and to invest in His cause. His want add might sound something like this:

next

Wanted: Man or woman to manage significant financial resources for out-of-town owner.  Applicants must be creative, willing to take risks, decisive.  Excellent benefits.  Salary to be determined.

God’s Ownership

Why would God be seeking capable managers?

The Bible is clear that God isn’t simply the creator of everything; He retains ownership of everything.

Psalm 24:1 ESV

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

You can see that not only does the stuff on the earth belong to God, the people do too—”those who dwell therin.” Not only does God own us because He created us, but Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross bought us back from slavery to sin and from certain death:

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

You may remember that last week we talked about three P’s: Power, Possessions and Pleasure.

These three things have been so corrupted by sin that it has damaged our relationship to God. But all these things were designed by God for humans to experience in the context of relationship to Him.

God gave us posessions with the understanding that we are managers of HIS resources, and that He is the ultimate owner.

Parable of the Talents

parable of the talents

Turn to Matthew 25 verses 14 - 30 where you’ll find one of the last parables that Jesus told about a business owner and his three managers.

The business owner called his managers into his office and told them about an upcoming trip. Then he took out a bag of money for each manager. He didn’t tell them what to do with it. He just “entrusted” them with his money.

While the owner was gone the three managers went about managing. One manager was given the equivalent of 2.5 million dollars. The next was given 1 million dollars. And the last was given $500,000.

These managers had likely been involved with this owner for some time. They each had different skills and they had experience handling various aspects of the owner’s business.

The first manager took the $2.5 million and “put it to work,” according to Jesus’ words. Jesus didn’t say what he did with the money, just that in the period of time the owner was away, the money doubled to $5 million. That’s a fantastic growth rate! The only way someone would earn that kind of growth is if they took careful and wise risks. It wasn’t a gamble, per se, but investments that pay off like that are not guaranteed. And it definitely took initiative and careful planning and determination to accomplish. Who knows, maybe he was a venture capitalist and backed whatever the equivalent of a 1st century tech-company startup might have looked like.

The second manager invested the $1 million in a similar way, and just like the first manager, he was successful and doubled the money.

Now, did either of those managers think that the money they had in their hands was theirs? No! They were very clear that the money belonged to the owner. The first manager couldn’t have made 2.5 million in profit if he didn’t have the owners initial investment.

Jesus doesn’t tell us what their salary for their work was, but he does say that in the end they gave 100% of it back to the owner. The resources they were managing were owned completely by their boss.

And then there’s the third manager; if we can call him that. Clearly the boss took a risk on this guy. He gave him $500,000! This manager had the equivalent of 6 years of today’s average income in his care. Maybe he was afraid he’d make a mistake and the owner would penalize him for it. Maybe he was angry with the owner because he wasn’t trusted with as much as the others. We don’t know his motivation, but we do know that he had bitter thoughts about the owner. Instead of investing the money, the guy literally dug a hole in his backyard and buried the money so that it couldn’t be stolen. Then, he waited for the owner to return.

When the owner did return, the two who had invested, risked, sweated and worked to increase the owner’s resources, were invited to “share” in the owner’s joy. One might think that meant they got a share of their earnings, but I like to think of this as though they are the owner’s children. When he returned, they didn’t just get a salary from their earnings, they got to enter into all the resources of the owner, as his heirs.

Remember, Psalm 24:1 said that “all who dwell” in the earth are the Lord’s. There are two ways that a person can belong to you: a slave, or a child. God isn’t in the business of enslaving us, and He likes to call Himself “our Father,” so that must mean that our relationship to God is as His children and heirs.

But then there was that last manager. When the owner returned he dug up his share of the owner’s assets and plopped it on the table with a huff, “here’s your dirty money!” He said. “I knew you were a dirty businessman who gets his money from other’s peoples hard work, so I dug a hole and buried your dirty money. Here it is. Every red cent!”

You can tell from his answer that this manager was not pleased to be working for the owner. If he was a child of the owner, like I’m suggesting the other two were, then it’s clear that he didn’t want to have anything to do with his father. And the result was that the owner disassociated himself with that manager. He disowned that son. Or maybe it would be better to say that the son disowned his father because that is what his bitterness towards the owner led to.

This story is essential for us to understand the God-as-owner motif in the Bible. God is owner of everything in the same way that a father owns all the resources and from those resources he provides for his children.

All He wants, with all His heart, is to give us His entire kingdom.

Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 5:5 NLT

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

But we struggle with this thought. Our twisted desires put us on top and anyone who touches my things, hurts my pride, or prevents my pleasure is an enemy that needs to be pushed down. Our temptation is to believe wrong things about God and make him into our enemy. Our natural position is that third manager who gets a bad attitude about his dad and disowns him. Sin twists our desires and puts us at odds with God’s role as our father and provider.

Tithe

Last week we talked about three practices that God uses to correct our twisted desires:

prayer to help us remember God is the one with the power and to surrender to Him

fasting to help us take our pleasures off the throne and put God back where He belongs

and giving to help us allow God to be our provider

While giving in general is helpful to prevent our heart from twisting away from God, there is a command in the Bible that is very specific about how we should give.

Abraham

The story begins with Abraham when he gave a tenth of the resources he recovered from rescuing Sodom and Ghomorrah to Melchizedek (Gen 14:18-20), the priest of God and king of Salem.

Jacob

And then we find Jacob promising God a tenth of his posessions (Gen 28:20-22).

These voluntary gifts show there was a concept of a tithe from as far back as Abraham, and maybe even as far as Adam and Eve. Then God formalized that arrangement with the Israelites.

Notice what he said in Leviticus:

Leviticus 27:30–32 ESV

“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. If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord.

They were to give the first tenth—the best tenth—to the priests at the tabernacle. Let’s say your tithe was your ten best sheep. If you were unwilling to give your best, then you give 10 of your other sheep and then add 2 more sheep (1/5th or 20% more) to buy back the original tithe of your best sheep. That’s an interesting feature of this tithing concept, because it starts to reveal that more than being about money God is interested with impressing our hearts with His ownership. God’s not asking you to give him your leftovers. He’s asking us to give Him back His best and first.

God added context to His purpose for tithe in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 14:22–29 ESV

“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. …that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. …that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

There is a lesson and a promise in this passage. The lesson that tithe teaches us is the fear of the Lord. By “fear the Lord” the Bible means to respect God as our Lord and creator.

The third manager in Jesus story did not respect his manager. His heart was cold towards the owner and he disassociated himself from him.

A child who respects his father is eager to spend time with Him, and loves to hear his voice when he comes home from work. The first two managers in Jesus’ parable were like respectful children: they thought highly of the owner’s mission and plans and were eager to join him in advancing his business. When the owner came back, they were eager to show Him what they had done with his money.

When God’s children respect Him, they value the things that God values, and the choices they make will be based on their respect for God.

Tithe cultivates this respect. It builds in us a repeated pattern of trust in God in a tangible, physical way. Every time we get a paycheck and take 10% off the top to give to God we are reminding ourselves that God is the owner. That God is our Provider. That God is our Father.

When we choose to live on 90% of what we earn, we put ourselves in a dependent position. And sometimes, when things are tight, God has to intervene and work a miracle to provide for us. When we see those little miracles, our faith in God as our provider grows, and we respect Him as our Father more.

Two weeks ago I asked you to put God in the director’s chair of your life.

Last week we explored the mental shift that has to happen about power, posessions and pleasure when we put God on the throne. Putting him on the throne means I become the manager and He takes His rightful place as Owner of all of me and my stuff.

Now, putting God on the throne doesn’t mean He’s going to micro manage. He expects that you will make your own decisions about how to manage your resources and provide for your needs. But he does expect you to regularly affirm that He is the owner through your tithe. He even says in Malachi 3 that if we don’t give that tithe then we’re robbing him of what is rightfully His.

When you are faithful to give God a tithe, He promises to provide for you. This is one of the only places in the Bible where God says to put Him to the test:

Let’s turn to Malachi 3:8-10

Malachi 3:8–10 ESV

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 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.

If you haven’t given a regular tithe before you might look at your paycheck and say, “it’s not big enough!” You feel like everything that comes in flows out. How could you possibly give God any when 100% of your paycheck is used to provide for your family—and you still don’t have all you need. That’s how the Israelites in Malachi’s day felt. It’s like they had a bag of money with a hole it in. Or as though they got less in their harvest than they originally planted.

God told them the reason for their financial hardship was that they were robbing him. Yes, that’s right. When they didn’t give God 1/10th, God claimed it was robbery. That’s a pretty serious charge, and it puts God’s people at odds with the law that says, “though shalt not steal.”

God can’t bless you when you’re robbing him.

Malachi 3 promises that God will provide for you, if you put your trust in Him. If you learn to respect Him as owner of your stuff and your person, then God will claim you as His child and make sure to provide for your needs. Give him that 1/10th of your earnings and He promises to pour out a blessing that you don’t have enough containers to hold. It will overflow from you and bless others too!

Nobody wants to get a 10% pay cut. Especially not in the inflationary time we’re living in. What would that do to your spending? What pleasures would you have to do without if you gave God a tithe? What posessions have you have taken out loans for that you couldn’t afford if you were to live on 10% less? It’s not a pleasant thought. I get that.

And that is precisely why God asks us to give him a tithe: to help our minds shift from us as provider and our stuff as our ruler, to HIM as owner, Provider, and Lord.

Stories of Faith

over and over again stories

God is always faithful. I bet my life and my future on it, and many others before me have as well.

If you’d like some good reading this afternoon, go to your internet search engine and put in Over and Over Again, stewardship. The Over and Over Again collection of stories are amazing examples of God providing when people are faithful.

As I said before, nobody wants to take a 10% pay cut.

But Rose Otis tells a story about her grandmother that reframes that completely. Her grandmother didn’t make much money at all. She lived off a small rent check each month from a rental property her father had handed down to her. When that check came in, she didn’t start by paying bills. She went to her kitchen cabinet where she had several old jelly jars. One was labeled “Tithe.” Others were labeled “Church Budget,” “Voice of Prophecy,” and “Savings.”

Before groceries. Before household needs. Before anything else — she put 10% in the tithe jar.

There were times she needed things. But she would not dip into God’s jar. She believed that if she honored Him first, He would take care of the rest.

And He did.

As a little girl, Rose was given her own jars. Grandma paid her in coins for helping in the kitchen. She paid her with coins so she could practice putting a portion aside for God.

And Rose said that because of those jelly jars, tithe has always been the first money she sets aside from any money she earns.

When it’s a habit that you separate out your tithe before your living expenses, tithe isn’t a 10% loss, it just was never there to begin with. You learn to treat the 90% as the perfect sized paycheck.

Dr. Kent Van Arsdell had a two-year income guarantee from a Knoxville hospital. He was committed to having a family life, be active in his local church, have a Christian medical practice, and give generously to God. His practice began slowly with patients trickling in. His actual income didn’t meet the income guarantee. A year passed, and then the second year came and went and still his patient load didn’t meet the expectations of the medical group. At the end of the two years, Dr Arsdell found that his income took a nose dive to match his patient load, and his expenses increased. He and his wife were convinced that God had led them to Knoxville, but they were unable to cover their family expenses with January’s check. And then February’s check was even worse. What should they do?

They decided that they would bring in an expert business consultant to help them figure out what to do. They knelt down and prayed to ask God for wisdom. In that moment Dr. Arsdell decided to make a covenant with God. He promised God that if his income were higher this year than the guaranteed income was last year, he would give God 40% of the extra income. It seemed ludicrous at the time because their income was so low, but the very next month was his highest income so far. By early fall it became clear that he would meet that the threshold he had set in his covenant with God. By the end of the year they realized God had provided 50% more than the income guarantee the previous two years! So, Dr. Arsdell gave a tithe on the first portion of his income, and a 40% tithe on the extra 50%, just as He had promised.

They found that God is the best consultant and business partner to have.

More than Money

God’s promise to bless us when we put our posessions and person under his ownership doesn’t stop with money. There are stories of people tithing the produce of their gardens, and when they do, their gardens often grow so much food they have to give a bunch away.

There are stories of businesses that aren’t making a profit on paper to tithe from, but they brought God in as a managing partner, and gave Him a percentage of the sales before there was any profit. When they did that their sales multiplied and they became profitable beyond their hopes.

If you’re doing your best in life and you put yourself under the ownership of God, then He promises to pour out His blessings.

One tithe that we all can give to God, whether we have an income or not, is the tithe of our time. When we dedicate part of our day to spending time with God, we will reap the rewards of that connection all day long. And when we take part of our week to Sabbath with God, we are physically, relationally, and spiritually blessed.

next

Josh Howerton is the Senior Pastor of Lakepointe Church in Dallas Texas. It’s a multisite, evangelical church, but one Sunday about three years ago he preached a sermon about the Sabbath where he talked about the idea of God giving back what we give Him.

Here’s the numbers he shared:

An average American lives to be about 77 years old. This was statistics three years ago, so the number is a little different today, but let’s stick with his numbers for the illustration.

Then he said that there is this little sect of Christianity called Seventh-day Adventists who observe a regular, weekly, Sabbath rest (and, although he didn’t emphasize it, generally they live a healthy lifestyle), and they live on average 11 years longer than the rest of the population. That’s been true in the past, but as Adventists align their health practices with the world, and the world aligns with the Adventist health message, that gap is closing. Today the gap is closer to 7-9 years longer, but it’s still significant.

next

Now, here’s his math formula: If you take 77, the average years a person in the US will live, and multiply that by the number of days in a year, 365, then the average person lives 28,105 days.

Now, if you take the number of Sabbath’s in an average lifespan by dividing 28,105 by 7, you’d come to 4,015 Sabbath.

next

Divide 4,015 Sabbaths by 365 and we’ll see how many years those Sabbaths represent in an average lifespan—that’s 11 years!

So, the average person has the potential to keep a Sabbath rest 4,015 times, or 11 years of their life. And for those Seventh-day Adventists who do keep that Sabbath, God gives them those years back in an extra 11 years of life!

It would be wise not to think of this illustration as a promise from God. Averages aren’t prophetic. But Josh Howerton effectively illustrated the reality that when we give to God, he repays us.

next

Whether its money or time—you can’t out-give God.

In Malachi 3 God promised that when we bring Him a tithe, He will be a protector for our crops and rebuke the devourer for our sakes. If you’re a farmer that promise is especially relevant when the bugs come to eat your crops. But the same applies to your business, to your garden, to your house and cars and clothes.

New Testament Tithing

Blank

Now, some people suggest that this principle of tithing was an Old Testament thing. Since we’re under the New Covenant of Jesus’ blood, those old rules don’t apply anymore. I totally understand that kind of thinking. We don’t want to be legalists about our relationship with God. So, let’s go to the New Testament and see what principles it adds to our understanding of tithe.

Jesus addressed the Pharisees who were a conservative sect of Judaism who piles up unnecessary rules and were totally legalistic. In rebuking them for prioritizing rules over justice and love Jesus said this about tithe:

Matthew 23:23 ESV

“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.

He affirms their tithing of their garden, but he reminded them that the blessings of God don’t come just because we are faithful with tithing. It’s not about legalism. It’s about us putting ourselves under the ownership of God. And if we are truly God’s children, then we will prioritize the things that God does. We will pursue justice, and mercy and faithful love.

In Luke Jesus addresses the idea of giving in this way:

Luke 6:38 NLT

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

And lastly, Paul adds to the story in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 9:6–8 ESV

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.

Maybe the shift in the New Testament is less about doing away with the Old Testament tithe as a rule, and more about a willingness to put ourselves in the hands of God and trust Him to provide.

Instead of begrudgingly giving God 10%, I think what God is inviting us to do is to eagerly put 100% of our stuff, our money, and ourselves under His ownership.

Conclusion

Want ad

We started our message today with job postings. If God were to put up a job posting for managers, what would He say the salary is?

Look back at Jesus’ parable of the three managers. Remember, the first two managers received the same thing—the inheritance of God’s entire kingdom; the Joy of their master’s house. But for them, as for us, that’s an intangible payment so long as we are waiting for the master to return. We can’t live on the hope of heaven.

While the master was gone, I assume that the managers had to live on the resources he had left them with.

It’s important to recognize that the master didn’t give his managers all the same amount. One got $2.5 Million! It would have been fun to play with that kind of money.

Pay attention to the attitude of these different managers. The first one managed his money well. The second received 1 million and managed his money well. And their attitudes as good managers of their master’s resources were positive. Both of them were eager to see their master return from his trip.

The third manager received $500,000, but he had a stinky attitude and buried the master’s resources in the ground. He chose to live off his own meager capabilities and he was bitter about it the whole time. There was no joy in his heart when the master returned.

Researchers have been studying how money relates to happiness and they’ve found that at low income levels more money significantly improves happiness. If you can’t afford rent, then you’re going to have a lot of stress and more money would solve that stressor. But there’s a point at which more money doesn’t alleviate those financial stressors anymore. Researchers continue to argue about what that number is. In 2010 it was $75,000. Today that number is likely closer to $100,000 taking inflation into account.

But as I pointed out last week, we don’t stop wanting more just because we have more. Our expenses rise with our income and we are always tempted look at those who have just a little more than us with jealousy. This temptation is real whether you’re earning $20,000 a year or $200,000 a year.

Whether we have a lot or a little we are the ones who cultivate the attitude we have about our resources. Will we foolishly compare what we have with what someone else has and get bitter about it? Or will we be faithful with what God has given us to manage, and trust him to give us more as He chooses?

In the parable, the unfaithful manager had his resources taken away from him, and the master said,

Matthew 25:29 NLT

To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.

In another Parable in Luke 16, Jesus talked about another manager who dealt with his master’s money. We won’t go into the parable, but the lesson he taught from it is very similar to this story from Matthew 25.

Luke 16:10–11 NLT

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

The important lesson of tithing isn’t a legalistic burden of living on 90% of what you earn. The true lesson of tithing is putting yourself under the ownership of God and trusting Him to provide. If you are faithful to do that, God promises to be faithful to you by giving you all you need here on earth, and ultimately giving you an inheritance of all of His posessions as His child.

——

kingdom assignments

Kingdom assignments

Now, I promised there would be a time after the message for you to come up and get a $100 grant to bless someone outside of this church. Now is the time to come up and get it.

Remember, the requirements are simple: use it for someone outside this church, and come back and tell us the story about what you did with the money. If you don’t want to come up front, you can tell the story on our Riverview Conversations podcast.

blank

——-

Closing song