Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning we continue our sermon series “Mirrors to Windows” Like a mirror’s reflection, God wants us to reflect Jesus – and not just within the four walls of this church- but in the places outside these windows- in the ordinary everyday places of our lives.

To do that we must allow Jesus to saturate every aspect of our lives, moreover, as we learned, we must develop intimacy with God through spiritual discipline.

There are several spiritual disciplines such as experiencing the Bible, prayer, percentage giving, private and cooperate worship, and acts of service,.

Over the past two weeks we have covered the disciplines of experiencing the Bible and prayer.

This morning we will put a spotlight on the spiritual discipline of percentage giving.

SERMON POINTS

1.

To best reflect Jesus in our own frontline we must develop intimacy with God by practicing the spiritual discipline

of percentage giving.

Simon Sinek, in his book, “Start with Why,” shares the following,

“Armed with every ingredient for success, Samuel Pierpont Langley set out in the early 1900s to be the first man to pilot an airplane.

Highly regarded, he was a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution, a mathematics professor who had also worked at Harvard.

His friends included Andrew Carnegie and Alexander Graham Bell.

Langley was given a $50,000 grant from the War Department to fund his project, a tremendous amount of money for that time.

He pulled together the best minds of the day, a veritable dream team of talent and know-how.

Langley and his team used not only the finest materials, but they were followed by the press everywhere they went.

People all over the country were riveted to the story, waiting to read that he had achieved his goal.

With the team he had gathered and all of the resources they had, his success was guaranteed.

Or was it?

A few hundred miles away, Wilbur and Orville Wright were working on their own flying machine.

Their passion to fly was so intense that it inspired the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated group in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio.

There wasn't any funding for their venture.

No government grants.

No high-level connections.

Not a single person on the team had an advanced degree or even a college education, and that included Wilbur and Orville Wright.

But the team banded together in a humble bicycle shop and made their vision real.

On December 17, 1903, a small group witnessed a man take flight for the first time in history.”

Sinek goes on to explain that only the Wright brothers were successful at inspiring those around them and to ultimately succeed because they started with the question “why”?

The Wright brothers understood the power of "Why".

They knew that people wouldn't truly buy into a product, a service, a movement, or an idea, until they understood the why behind it.

In other words, (for the notes)

A person's why is the purpose or the cause or the belief that inspires that person to action.

Behind each choice that you and I make, there is a why or a reason.

I agree with Sinek and believe that the “start with the why,” concept is especially applicable to the topic of how we manage our finances.

As Dr. David Jeremiah explains,

“What we believe about money and what we believe about possessions and why we do with our money and possessions what we do, determines how this all plays out through our lives.”

So we are going to “start with the why” as we discuss this sometimes difficult topic of financial giving.

Why is percentage giving important?

Why should I do it?

Percentage giving, also traditionally called tithing, is giving a percentage of your income before taxes back to God.

Money is discussed frequently in the Bible.

In fact, Jesus taught often about money but the crazy thing is, Jesus did not teach about money because He valued it for Himself.

The gospels do not record Him ever asking others for it.

This is because Jesus didn’t want to get rich.

He had no need for money because Father God provided for every single one of His Son’s needs.

So why then, did Jesus talk about money?

The answer to that question is the answer to our earlier question:

Why is percentage giving important and why should I do it?

And is our second point this morning:

2. Jesus taught about money because He wants us to have the right priorities.

But don’t take my word for it, listen to what Jesus said in Luke 18 when a certain ruler asked Him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said Luke 18:19-25

(long sigh)

Jesus, do you know just how hard it is to do what you are asking here?

Perhaps, like so many of us today, the young ruler thought: I work hard and when the money comes in it is difficult for me to let it go.

It’s mine, I earned it, and I have the right to spend it how I want.

Maybe the ruler didn’t earn his riches, maybe he inherited it and felt an obligation to his family to be its steward.

Regardless, when tested, this man chose to give money a higher priority than inheriting eternal life.

He gave his money a greater priority than following Jesus.

Jesus taught about money because He knew that the human heart is easily mesmerized by it.

If you want to know what you value, what you really value in your life- then take a look at your bank statement and it will tell you.

Matthew 6:24

(NIV) He makes this bold declaration,

“’No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.’”

What do you value more?

Your money or God?

When you commit to percentage giving your values and priorities are reconfirmed on a regular basis.

It is a way for you to weekly demonstrate God’s preeminence in your life.

That brings us to our third point this morning:

3. Jesus taught about money because He wants us to make investments that last.

Jesus wants us to make sound investments that really hold their value.

Pastor Alan Perkins uses the following illustration to demonstrate this concept:

Take a look at the two men in this photo:

You probably recognize them: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

The two men who founded Apple Computer.

Right?

Well, no, actually that’s not completely accurate.

Here is a photo of the original partnership agreement, dated April 1, 1976.

As you can see, it has three signatures, not two.

The first is Stephen G. Wozniak.

The second is Steven P. Jobs.

And the third is Ronald G. Wayne.

Here’s a picture of him

Who is that, you may ask.

Ronald Wayne was the third co-founder of Apple, with a ten percent ownership stake.

Remember that figure: ten percent.

He wasn’t an engineer, but he had a significant role in the early days of the company: he designed the first Apple logo, he wrote the user manual for the Apple 1 computer, and in general he provided administrative oversight of the new venture.

He was the unofficial adult in the room: he was in his forties at the time.

So why haven’t most of us ever heard of Ronald Wayne?

Is he a wealthy recluse, staying out of the public eye while he sails around the world on his 300-foot luxury yacht?

Perhaps he’s a philanthropist, distributing his millions to deserving charities.

No. No, neither of those things is true.

In fact, today Ronald Wayne is far from wealthy.

Because just twelve days after these partnership documents were signed, he and the others signed a second document.

Second Doc

And in this document, he gave up his ten percent stake, in exchange for eight hundred dollars.

Eight hundred dollars.

Let me ask you, would you be willing to pay $800 for ten percent of Apple Computer today?

So what happened?

Well, Wayne had second thoughts.