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Our Preaching theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”
We begin this year by taking a look at the values that guide our vision.
This is the last of our series on SCF Values.
I will refer you to the diagram that I brought out two weeks ago.
I inadvertently created a chiasm in our values statement.
At the center we have the Kingdom of God, which belongs at the center because it is our focal point at the people of God who are tasked with establishing His rule in the world.
And on either side of that we have the Holy Spirit who is the means by which we accomplish this task.
The second point is the Word of God which is our objective source of revelation and opposite that we have fellowship which is the context for working out and living out that revelation.
It begins with worship (the overflow of our hearts toward God) and ends with generosity (the overflow of our lives toward others.
Generosity is a counterpart to our worship.
If we say that we love God, then we ought also to love others.
Generosity is a tangible expression of our love for God and others.
We value generosity both in material things and in love.
We believe that God has called us to live abundantly where we have enough to share.
This is not just in material things, but also in our love and compassion for those who have needs of various kinds.
We seek to bless as we have been blessed by God.
When I was growing up on the farm.
I learned about tithing the very first time I earned any money of my own.
My grandparents lived across the street (where my brother lives now).
One day my grandmother asked me to move boxes from her basement to above the garage.
I think she paid me 5 or 10 cents per box.
It might not seem like much, but it was to me then.
When she paid me she counted out the change on the kitchen table.
Say it was $1.80.
She had made the change such that she count separate out 18 cents from the rest.
“This part belongs to the Lord,” she told me.
Tithing has never been a question for me.
I have always understood that part of what I earn belongs to the Lord.
That is what I was taught.
But this is not just a sermon about tithing.
Not that there is anything wrong with tithing, but I don’t think it goes far enough.
I want us to think in terms of generosity - not just giving God what belongs to Him -but giving like God gives..
But recognizing that, in fact, it all belongs to Him!
God is so generous with us and He wants us to be generous with others!
So we will start by being generous with our tithes, but then we also want to be generous with our offerings and not just our material offerings, but as our value states - we want to be generous with our love.
Generous with our tithes
Malachi is considered to be the standard text when it comes to tithing.
It was the practice of giving one tenth as tribute.
It is a practice as old as Abraham and Melchizedek.
It was reiterated in the Levitical Law.
In fact, the Levites themselves, as a tenth of Israel were set apart for God.
During revivals under Hezekiah and Nehemiah an effort was made to reinstate tithing as a practice.
But it seems that this was not practiced consistently in Israel, because the prophet Malachi calls out the whole nation for not setting aside God’s portion.
So why tithe?
And why a tenth?
The tithe is symbolic of the whole.
I think the simplest explanation comes from just looking at the numbers.
Nearly every modern counting system uses ten as its base.
There are some ancient counting systems that differed in their groupings, but ten is still the most common base number.
We have ten fingers and ten toes.
But here is the clever thing about counting by tens. to get ten percent - or a tenth - you just drop the last digit.
So in my example from earlier, a tenth of $1.80 was 18 cents.
The tenth looks just like the whole.
That is because the tenth is supposed to represent the whole.
The idea behind giving a tenth is that we are symbolically giving the whole to God.
We are recognizing that God deserves it all - it all belongs to him!
So the portion that we give back is a representative portion - a symbolic part- which represents the whole.
If it seems like ten percent is a lot to give, just remind yourself that you owe God everything.
Giving ten percent is supposed to remind you that the other 90 percent isn’t yours either!
You get to use the other 90 percent to serve God and to bless others.
Tithing is a test of faith.
Does a tithe have to be ten percent?
I really don’t like answering that question.
Because people assume that as a pastor, I am just trying to get money for the church.
“The church is always asking for money!” is what many people think.
When I am teaching on tithing and giving, it isn’t actually about money - I want to teach you about faith and trusting God.
I realize that this subject has been abused, so I want to be careful.
God invites us to put Him to the test in this area.
In fact it is we who are being tested.
God asks us to honor him by giving Him His portion, and by doing so, we learn to trust God to provide for us.
I’m not telling you what you should do, that’s between you and God.
But I will encourage you to prayerfully experiment with asking God what you should give and then see how God provides in response?
How many people are here today have tried it and found that God really does honor our giving?
I would encourage you to do this in steps.
I have also seen people take a big leap of faith and not have it turn out the way that they expected - then they blame God for their failure when they tried to run before they could walk.
Don’t give money to the church that you don’t have - unless you have tried it and have seen God do the impossible on a small scale - then its your faith, not mine.
Don’t give away what God has given you to meet your need and then expect others to help you - unless of course, God has you on on an Abraham journey and you are really willing to make the sacrifice.
I really want to see you grow in this area - but I don’t want to see you become discouraged by attempting too much too soon.
I would say “If you have seen God provide $10, try for a hundred”
And if you have seen God provide hundreds, try for thousands.
But start small and let God build your faith a step at a time.
Perhaps you have heard someone say, “Isn’t tithing an Old Testament practice that is not necessarily part of the New Covenant?”
A tithe/ tenth is a baseline.
It is true that tithing is Old Covenant.
Tithes were collected and used for the temple as part of the annual feasts.
Here is what the tithe was used for:
They were for the celebrations themselves, so that everyone would have a memorable time in the presence of the Lord and with each other.
What was left was for the care of the Levites, the people who were charged with the responsibility of caring for the temple and its services.
There was also enough to care for strangers, orphans and widows - desperate people who had only God to turn to for help.
The New Testament gospels refer to tithing, it is usually in the context of religious duty, not a command of Christ.
However, we also know that the early church received regular financial gifts that were set aside for the Lord’s work.
I would simply ask this question, “If tithing is Old Covenant, would the New Covenant require anything less?”
I think that what the new covenant teaches is abundance and generosity which goes beyond an obligatory ten percent.
Why stop at ten percent?
Why not more?
When I was first married, my late wife and I knew that we were called to ministry and to missions.
We knew that we would someday live on the generosity of others, so we wanted to practice being generous.
Keep in mind this was when we had two incomes and no kids.
We found that we could give as much as a third of our income between tithe and missions giving and live off the other two thirds.
So we did.
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