Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning.

I want to start this morning by explaining my change of sermon order.

I had originally intended to preach a sermon in the God and Money series on faithfulness.

But due to current circumstances I thought it best to rearrange the schedule and preach on giving this week instead.

What if I told you that there was a subject that Jesus talked about more than heaven or hell?

What would you assume that to be? Would you assume that if Jesus spent more time on it than even heaven or hell that it is very important for us to talk about?

That topic is money.

Jesus talked more about money than either of those topics.

So how are we to feel about that?

Well, we can approach it one of two ways.

We can ignore it, which is a very dangerous choice to make.

Or, we can find out as much as we can about how Jesus wants His followers to live toward money and obey what we find there.

As a church it is so vital that we have a proper understanding of what God says about our giving.

A lot of people say “God doesn’t need your money.”

That’s absolutely correct.

God doesn’t need anything.

My friend Mike Whittymore says, “God doesn’t need your money, but the church does.”

God has ordained that the way his church is provided for is by His people giving to the work and ministry of the local church.

A little later in the sermon I am going to talk more specifically about our church financial situation and what has happened over the last week.

Today we are going to take a look at what God tells us in the Bible about what our giving should look like.

My goal is to help your hearts see and grasp what good opportunities God has given us to make much of Him and to help you see the importance of our personal obedience in this sensitive area.

Would you take a moment and pray with me for our hearts as we dive into God’s Word this morning?

PRAY

Some of you are old enough to remember a band called Van Halen.

They had a very interesting clause in their performance contract.

Article 126 stipulated that “a bowl of M&Ms be provided backstage, but with every single brown M&M removed.”

If the band arrived and found any brown M&Ms, they were free to cancel the contract and receive full payment.

This was not because they hated brown M&Ms.

It was a safety thing.

They were the first big band to play in third-level markets and used nine tractor trailer’s worth of equipment!

Mistakes were common and potentially life-threatening, especially if the stage couldn’t support all the weight.

So they had to make sure that the promoter read the contract; hence, Article 126.

To quote their lead singer, “When I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl…well, line-check the entire production…Guaranteed you’d run into a problem.”

It seems silly at first, but a detail like that turns out to be incredibly important.

To put it in a more biblical framework, remember what the master in the parable of the talents from last week said to the servant who had invested two talents.

And that brings us to our topic this morning: giving.

How we can we be good stewards with the little or much that we’ve received and what is our giving supposed to look like?

This morning we are going to be jumping around in scripture quite a bit.

My goal here today is that you see and respond obediently to the will of the Lord God.

I am not trying to guilt you in anyway.

As I said last week, there is quite a bit of Christian liberty in some areas of stewardship of our time, talent, and treasure.

However, there are some very clear directions for how we are to live as followers of Christ in relation to finances.

And these are not suggestions that God makes.

This is important to point out.

I have a deep burden that so many times we take the commands of God and treat them like they are suggestions… like this is really the preferred way to live over here but if I don’t feel so good about that then I can still live over here and be just fine…

But what we don’t want to do is to give begrudgingly.

You know as the brothers pass the baskets we don’t hope they see a bunch of scowls… like the guy who gives but doesn’t want to… OR the guy who hates the fact that he has to give but is afraid if he doesn’t give then he won’t get that new job so he sort of gives out of a desire to get something else… like he’s paying a membership fee or dues.

These are the not what it means to give to the Lord’s church.

First of all, you’re giving to God.

So, in the remainder of my time this morning we are going to look at what the Bible would have us understand about what giving is, what we should give, and how we should give.

I. Why Should Christians Give?

A. Giving Shows How Great God Is

Giving is an act of worship.

Some mistakenly think that worship is only when we sing.

Now, that certainly is worship but it’s not all that is worship.

It is worship when we hear the Word of the Lord proclaimed as you are during a sermon.

It is worship when we serve, and it is most certainly an act of worship when we give.

I encourage you to be mindful of the greatness and worth of God when you write that check and put it in the plate or when you hit the send button on your online giving.

It’s worship when we set aside our amount in our monthly budget.

Giving is an act of worship.

Giving shows how great God is.

It proves that He is worth it to us.

It shows that we value not just the gift we have been given but the giver of that gift and that we trust Him.

It’s about giving up what is valuable for that which is more valuable.

We see this in the life of Moses in the Old Testament but it is mentioned about him in Hebrews 11:26 in the New Testament.

B. God generously gives to us.

We can toss away our worldly possessions because God has given us something much more valuable.

And he has given to us generously.

Jesus gave His very life for you.

He didn’t have to.

He lived a perfect life with no sin and yet gave that life on the cross in your place because of your sin.

He didn’t hold it back from you.

He gave generously.

He still gives generously, and we are to imitate Him in giving with nothing held back.

Is He worth it?

Yes! Are we willing?

Each of us has to decide.

II.

What should Christians give?

A. Everything

As we learned last week, everything we have is owned by God and given to us by God to steward or manage well for His purposes.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So in all things we are to be proclaiming God’s goodness and bringing Him glory.

We do this in many ways but money is one piece of the larger puzzle of how we proclaim the goodness of God.

However, money is often also a sign of the status of our hearts.

B. Tithes and Offerings

Here is where some of you want me to come in with hard and fast rules.

And I believe we do see some of those in the Old Testament as it related to the law of Moses and God’s covenant with Israel.

We aren’t going to set those aside.

We are going to look at them in light of Jesus and try to understand where we should land today.

You may land in a different place than me.

Well meaning Christians of good conscience have disagreed on the issue of tithing.

Old Testament Giving

A good place to start is with the Old Testament concept of the tithe, which was a bit like income tax.

A tithe just means a tenth part and was to be holy, or set apart, to the Lord.

There were three different tithes collected in Israel.

First, Leviticus 27:30-33 tells us that a tithe of all the produce and flocks was to be set aside for the Lord.

This tithe was given to the Levites, enabling them to serve in the tabernacle full-time since they didn’t receive an inheritance of land.

They, in turn, were to tithe to support the priests (Num 18:8-32).