Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Imagine you were given, every month, £200 by God.

[What would you do with £200 every month to give to someone?]

£200 to do something good with it for the kingdom of God.

So you could give it to the church in your envelope if you wanted.

You could support a missionary one month.

You could help out a family in need one month.

You could use it one month for the foodbank and help restock that.

The options are endless - EVERY month you can help someone or the church for the glory of God and for the benefit of his kingdom.

And you might give it to a missionary one month and they might say to you - ‘wow, I don’t know what to say, that’s a lot of money - that’s very generous of you.’

Your reply would be, ‘actually it’s not generous of me at all, because it’s NOT MY MONEY TO KEEP.

I have been given this money precisely to give it away for the kingdom of God.’

So every month you are happy to give that money away because it’s not yours in the first place - it’s God’s money that he’s giving you as long as you use it to help others and benefit the kingdom of God.

Think of what we could DO with that money -especially if it happened to EVERYONE!

It blows your mind - what you could do… I mean, WOW.

Pause

But here’s the awesome news…it IS happening to everyone.

And it’s a concept that started right in the Old Testament...

And holy means set apart - as separate for the Lord.

And a tithe is 10% - a tenth of everything that we have is the Lord’s…and, because it’s a percentage, it’s a different amount for each person, depending on what your income is.

So thousands of years ago, the Israelites were told - commanded - to give a tenth of everything they produced, whether crops, grain or animals, to the Lord.

And this tithe was given to the Levites who were doing the Lord’s work....

So here’s the way it worked...

People grew crops or raised animals, except the Levites who worked in the temple or the tabernacle as priests…In other words, those doing God’s work.

But if those doing God’s work didn’t grow crops or raise animals, how would they survive?

How would THEY make their living?

Well, that’s why the Lord commanded the tithe - 10% of everyone else’s income went to pay the Levites who couldn’t raise money themselves because they were in an ‘industry’ or a career that didn’t produce an income.

In other words, it paid for their salary and the upkeep of the temple.

Now that’s the Old Testament, What about the New Testament - what does it say?

Paul, in 1 Corinthians write this...

Now Paul doesn’t mention an amount, but if you give as you prosper, that also means that there will be a different amount given depending on how prosperous you are…which sounds a lot like a percentage to me.

But what percentage?

How do we know how much to give as we prosper??? Paul doesn’t give a percentage, so what do we do?

How about…I don’t know…how about we start at 10%? Makes sense to me.

But if we do that…sorry, WHEN we do that, think of the impact that has.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians...

And the verse before, Paul says this...

Pause

Now, let’s put the Old Testament and the New Testament together.

10% of what we earn is the Lord’s.

I don’t think that’s changed, even after the coming of Jesus Christ.

10% of our income ISN’T OURS, it is God’s to give back to him.

So if we aren’t giving 10% at least back to the church then we are essentially robbing God.

And the church isn’t an profitable organisation - in fact, it’s considered a charity precisely because it’s not that type of industry - it’s not a money-making church.

It depends on the donations of its members to survive - like the Levites in the Old Testament.

So how can ministers, missionary workers, youth workers, family workers be paid?

How will church programs, heating bills, electricity bills, maintenance be paid?

...Unless the members give to the church in the same way as they gave to the Levites in the Old Testament?

And that’s why we have our offering every week.

Pause

So the question isn’t, why do we give - that’s kinda obvious.

The question is do we give our 10%?

And if not, why not?

And to look at that I want to consider the passage we read earlier from Exodus, but as we look at it, remember the verse on the screen at the minute - and let me paraphrase it... whoever gives little won’t get much back, but whoever gives generously will get loads back.

But don’t do it reluctantly.

Pause

So in our passage in Exodus.

God instructs Moses to build the tabernacle which is pretty much a tent where God can meet with his people.

It was the pre-cursor to the temple.

God has already given instructions in Exodus 25-28 on how the tabernacle and everything in it should be made.

So now it’s time for Moses to get to work.

Thing is, these people have been wandering in the wilderness for a long time and in the wilderness there’s a distinct lack of materials to build a tent and everything that God wants to go inside it.

So Moses gathers all the Israelites together and asks the congregation of Israel for help and Moses says…

In other words, Moses is saying to the Israelites – All this work needs done and you know what we need to get it done, so if anyone wants to help out, please help us out.

And then a crazy thing happened.

The appeal worked.

People gave to the work of God.

They gave their gold and precious stones and whatever they had as well as their talents – and we see this in verse 20:

Now what made people respond in this way?

They responded like this cos they saw the value in investing in God’s work.

You see, in this passage, it’s not so much a command to give, but more like a request to partner in the work.

And when you’re a partner in the work, in the same way that you would partner in a business, you are happy to invest, because you have a vested interest in the project and of course cos you want to see a return on your investment.

[when you partner in a project you have a vested interest in the project]

Remember the verse I asked you to remember - if you sow generously you will reap generously.

You WILL get a return on your investment.

And this is the attitude that we need to have when we think about giving to the church...

Don’t think of giving as a chore.

‘I MUST give my 10%’.

Don’t even think of it as a command - think of it as partnering in God’s work and in God’s kingdom.

And, if you want an incentive, cos Paul gives us one…think of how much you’ll get back as a return on your investment.

Pause

But, going back to what I asked you to imagine at the start of the sermon…Think of what you can do with all that money - think of the people you’ll affect, think of the other people you could employ as a church, think of the outreach you could do, think of the endless opportunities for mission and how you could support so many missionaries if we simply gave 10% - or if we simply gave God what is HIS in the first place.

Cos this is the amazing thing about tithing.

Kate and I have had the immense opportunity to bless others in need and to see the joy and gratitude on people’s faces when we offer them our tithe is awesome and so rewarding.

And they say, ‘we can’t accept THAT,’ but we say, ‘listen, it’s NOT our money to keep - this is what God has given us to give away to support the kingdom.

So Take it.

I’m giving it away anyway so it might as well be to you’

Pause

But this attitude is all well and good, but if you’re just about balancing your accounts at the end of each month - if what’s going out is almost to the penny what’s coming in... if your outgoings are MORE than your incomings and you’re NOT giving 10%, then what do you do?

It’s all well and good teaching this, but practically, for some people, it’s impractical.

I get that.

But let me tell you what I’ve noticed from leaving work to go into the ministry.

Firstly, there’s always something you can cut back on… but it’s about priorities.

And the lesson I learned was where is God on my list of priorities when it comes to my giving.

Is you car or sky TV or you love of food or dining out or whatever - is THAT more important than partnering in God’s work and giving God what’s his?

And secondly, and it’s back to that verse I asked you to remember…when you give up, sacrificially, something for God, he takes care of you in ways that will blow your mind.

Pause

When I left work to go to the ministry, I was getting around £2,500 per month home, and when I was in college, I got a bursary of £7,000 per year.

But for some reason that I cannot explain, we were better off financially when I gave up my career for the Lord than when I was in secular work.

And there have been times when we have thought, ‘we could really do with NOT giving our tithe this month’ but we have given it anyway - and that month we have managed to survive and often times we have got more money in than we gave away in the first place.