Why Should We Tithe?

This week's sermon was, again, preached by the leader of our Men's Ministry, Mr . Thomas Leach. Thank you for another wonderful presentation! 


Malachi 3:8-10

Google courtesy photo 

We are entering that time of the year when we are going to approve a budget for 2014. I know all of you are getting excited when you hear that I am going to preach a message on tithing.

I consider myself a biblical preacher. Therefore, I will preach the full counsel of God. It is not an option for me; it is an obligation. 

Secondly, we would be keeping you from a great blessing if we did not preach on the subject of giving.

The Bible only deals with three things: 

•  Our relationship to God 
•  Our relationship to each other 
•  and to God's creation.

We call that stewardship. I do not neglect preaching on the other two things; and I will not neglect preaching on stewardship.

Stewardship takes in more than money. A. W. Fagan said, "Tithing is only a small part of what the Bible says about giving. And giving is only a small part of what the Bible says about stewardship."
It takes in our time, talents, and testimony. We have a responsibility to pass down an earth that is not polluted for our children.
However, for this sermon today I want to give a biblical basis for tithing.

I. TITHING WAS GOD'S PLAN.

I am not making this up as I go. There is a biblical basis for tithing.

1. The first step in tithing is acknowledging God's ownership. God owns everything. You can pretend it is yours all you want. However, I can assure you that you can lose it.

-God created man and woman and placed them in a furnished garden. They had everything they needed to survive. God told them they could eat of all the trees of the garden except one. That one tree was His tree.

-Guess what? They did not appreciate God's restriction. The Devil tempted them into believing they were missing something.

It was as if God gave Adam and Eve 10 apples. It was a gift to them. He wanted them to give one of the apples back to him. The reason for this is that they would acknowledge that all the apples belonged to Him, not just the one they gave Him.

Now here is the point; they would not have any of the apples had it not been for the graciousness of God. However, they sinned thinking God held out on them.

Do you believe God owns everything? If you are not tithing, you are not acting like it! He gives with one hand and expects us to put one back in His other hand.

-There was a large supermarket next to a church. The pastor asked if they could use some of the parking spaces on Sundays. The owner said, "You can use the spaces every Sunday of the year except one." The pastor said, "That's fine, but why can't we use it that Sunday?" The owner said, "Because I don't want you to forget that it is my parking lot!"

2. The second step in tithing is expressing our gratitude to God.

-In Genesis 14 a league of kings came up against Sodom. They plundered the city and took Lot as a hostage. One man escaped and told Abraham. He armed his servants and pursued the kings. He routed them by night, freed Lot, and took the bounty.

-The King of Salem met him and blessed him, priest of the Most High God. He blessed Abraham; and Abraham paid him tithes.
This is the first time tithing is mentioned in Scripture. Abraham was so grateful for the victory God had given him he would not even take any of the spoil.

We are entering that time of the year we call on God and thank him for his blessings. Do you have anything for which to be grateful? How do you express that gratitude to God?

-If Abraham commenced tithing, Jacob continued tithing. He had an experience with God and committed himself to tithe. Zacchaeus got right with the Lord and was willing to give back four times as much as he had taken. Jesus accepted him, and he was so grateful that his pocketbook flew wide open. There is something about getting right with God that elicits our giving.

II. GOD'S PLAN WAS PUT INTO PRACTICE.

1. Moses commanded the tithe. Leviticus 27:30, "The tithe is the Lords," "But preacher, tithing was under the law and we are under grace." It is a disgrace to grace that Christians should give less under grace than the Jews did under the law.
Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek before the law was ever written. The Christian lives on a higher plane than the law. It is the plane of love.

-By the way, marriage was before the law, as well. I will allow you to make your own application there. The point is they were both incorporated into the law.

-The word tithe means tenth. That formula simplifies our giving. You are to give God a tenth of what you earn. That makes giving fair. It does not matter how much you make, you can pull your share of the load by giving a tenth.

2. Jesus commended tithing.

-Matthew 23:23 "You ought to have done these things and not leave the other things undone." Jesus did not come to eradicate the law. He came to fulfill the law.

3. Paul challenged the churches with this message.

-1 Corinthians 16:2 "Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by in store as God has prospered him."

-The problem in our text is that the Jews had abandoned this practice. There was a curse upon the land. What could they do? They could bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
This means if they wanted to solve the problem here is what you need to do. Bring your offering to God. How much of it! The whole of it! Where should I bring it? You are to bring it to God's house. Why should I bring it? Therefore, there will be meat in my house.

III. TITHING HELPS US TO FOCUS ON GOD'S PURPOSE.

We need to regain a balance today between those who ignore the tithe completely and those on the other hand who legalistically promote the tithe. The tithe may not be explicitly taught in the New Testament; but neither is it explicitly denied. As a Christian, you won't go to hell because you do not tithe. However, tithing does say something to God;
 Do we appreciate what He has done, is doing, and will do? 

 It says something about us. It lets us know where our priorities lie. It says something about our sacrifice, are we tithers or tippers? 

 It says something to other people. It says I care for you, It says we believe God's work is important.

-The purpose of the tithe is to grow us spiritually. The purpose of the tithe is so there will be meat in God's house. The Leviticus did not receive a portion of the land. They received the tithe from the other tribes so they could carry out the work of the Temple. When you tithe, you support your ministers and the ministry.

-U.S. News reported that the biggest givers to churches are between the ages of 65-and 74. If that is true, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that our churches are going to face some serious challenges in the future if other age groups do not pick up the slack.
-Are you doing your part to make sure the church and its message are getting out to the next generation?

IV. TITHING COMES WITH A PROMISE.

-Luke 6:38 says, "Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.

1. God promises that when we tithe that He will consecrate the other 90%.

-You can do more with the 90% than you can by keeping 100%

2. God promises that He will bless us.

-There was a church in Oklahoma that guaranteed the members if they did not receive more than they gave, the church would refund their money. Today, I make you the same promise. If you do not receive more than you give to this church, the church in Oklahoma will refund your money.

Seriously, our motive for giving is not to receive more. However, if our attitude is right in our giving, God will open up the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

The invitation this morning is from God. He says test me and see.

-You say, "I have never been challenged to tithe." 

You have now.

 I am asking you to commit to giving one tenth of your income to the Lord. If you accept this invitation, you will soon realize that tithing is not the end of our giving; it is only the beginning. 

I call it the teething stage for baby Christians. Soon you will be giving a tithe and an offering. (Remember, the tithe is His already. The offerings are what we give above the tithe.)

You say the economy is bad and I cannot afford to tithe. I say we do not tithe based on the economy. We tithe based on the promises of God. You cannot afford not to tithe!

-Did you wait until you could afford it to get married?
-If you wait until you can afford it, you will be like the couple in this poem.
The bride bent with age, leaned over her cane
Her steps uncertain needed guiding
While down the church aisle, with a wane, toothless smile, comes the groom in a wheelchair gliding
Who is this elderly couple thus wed
You will find when you closely explore it
This is that rare, most conservative pair
Who waited until they could afford it?


If you wait until you can afford it, you will never do it.

A Father's Love

Our Father's Day service was led by our Men's Ministry!

Thomas Leach shared the following sermon :

A small boy's definition of Father's Day: "It's just like Mother's Day only you don't spend as much."
Definition of a father... "A father is a man who carries pictures in his wallet where his money used to be."

Paul Harvey's definition of a father... "A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic.... A father never feels worthy of the worship in a child's eyes. He is never quite the hero his daughter thinks, never quite the man his son believes him to be, and this worries him, sometimes. Therefore, he works too hard to try and smooth out the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him...Fathers are what give daughters away to other men who are not nearly good enough, so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than any body's is. ." --Paul Harvey

When God created man and woman, He said that it was good. He made them in His image and in His likeness. He put the wholeness of who He really is and divided it between the both of them. Together Mother's and Father's are a fine balance and representation of God! God reflects a side of his nature and identifies with women! 1. Unconditional Love 2. Extreme Patience 3. Deep Pain and Self Sacrifice 4. Nurturing Care

Men are so different!

One night a wife found her husband standing over their baby's crib. Silently she watched him. As he stood looking down at the sleeping infant, she saw on his face a mixture of emotions: disbelief, doubt, delight, amazement, enchantment, skepticism. Touched by this unusual display and the deep emotions it aroused, with eyes glistening, she slipped her arm around her husband. "A penny for your thoughts," she said. "It's amazing!" he replied. "I just can't see how anybody can make a crib like that for only $46.50." feb98
The lost art of fatherhood...

According to David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values in New York City and co-founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative: 
*Forty percent of American children currently do not live with their biological fathers. 
*Seventy percent of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up with one or neither parents. 
*Forty-three percent of adult inmates grew up in single-parent homes, mostly without dads.

It has been said, "A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father." Recently a pastor asked a preschool class in a Sunday school to draw a picture of God. He intended to use them as an illustration for his Sunday sermon. Toward the end of class, the children were excited to show him their work. They came up with rainbows and men with big hands. Finally, his daughter showed him her picture: a man with a suit and tie on. "I don't know what God looks like," she said, "so I just drew my daddy instead." What an awesome responsibility.

No father is perfect! Father's you are great people of influence in the lives of those little ones.
God through His Word models for us the picture of a great father.
Text: Luke 15:11-32

I. A Father's love physically provides for his family.

In the story of the prodigal son, you see the picture of the heart of Father God. You see in this heart that this father was one that provided well for his family.
Both sons had bright futures with personal promise and fulfillment because of their father's provisions.
Provision: "Mommy, if the stork brings us babies, and Santa Claus brings us presents, and the Lord gives us our daily bread, and Uncle Sam provides us with Social Security, why do we keep Daddy around?" jun98

It is the most natural thing for a father to take on the responsibility of providing for his family. It was so understood that it was a part of the teaching of discipleship.
Text: Phil 4:19

II. A father's Love is protective!

It is the kind of love that loves and let us goes! However, runs to the aid when necessary!

A man told this story about his teenage daughter, Misty. She was waitressing at a restaurant when we showed up with a group of friends. Soon we became engrossed in our food and conversation. Meanwhile, a man at a nearby table, probably 15 years Misty's senior, began flirting with her. She ignored his request for her phone number, but he persisted. Finally, she stopped what she was doing and leveled her gaze at him. "Do you see that man?" she said, motioning toward me. The patron turned in our direction. "That's my dad," Misty continues. "We have the same phone number. If you want it, get it from him."

However, not over protection! Therefore, our heavenly father is also protective!

III. A Father's Love is Authoritative

Notice that the father does not request a celebration he announces one and it happens.
His voice is rather authoritative.
Our bark though is really worse than our bite! The lion was proud of his mastery of the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure all the other animals knew he was the king of the jungle. He was so confident that he by-passed the smaller animals and went straight to the bear. "Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion asked. The bear replied, "Why you are, of course" The lion gave a mighty roar of approval. Next, he asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, mighty lion" Next on the list was the elephant. The lion faced the elephant and addressed his question "Who is the king of the jungle?" The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk, whirled him around in the air five or six times and slammed him into a tree. Then he pounded him onto the ground several times, dunked him under water in a nearby lake, and finally dumped him out on the shore. The lion--beaten, bruised, and battered--struggled to his feet. He looked at the elephant through sad and bloody eyes and said, "Look, just because you don't know the answer is no reason for you to get mean about it!" jan98

IV. A Father's Love is forgiving

A father's forgiveness is not prolonged!
It gets right to the point and moves on!
Notice that through out the entire time of his son's absence seek him for revenge or rescue. It does not matter what you have done. It does not matter how long you have done it. Now he does not take things lightly but if you truly come, seeking forgiveness it is yours.
God give you always a second chance.

Thomas Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step, he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. However, when the poor kid got to top of the stairs he accidentally dropped the bulb. It took the entire team of men 24 more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. Edison gave it to the same young boy who had dropped the first one. That is true forgiveness
God the Father is like that. He is continually giving us chances after forgiving us.

V. A Father's Love influences.

The younger son had discovered his true identity only in his father's house. His father had loved him enough to allow him to discover that for himself.
Now the older son did not value the identity he had so the father is tenderly teaching him.
Provides a role model.
Forgiveness, Trust, Acceptance, Guidance, wisdom.

Conclusion:

God made a real balance in the family of expressing His nature reflected through father and mother.
Men are you fulfilling your role as God intended.
Your love is really needed in your family and in the world today to truly represent God.

Kids need the love of their dads just as much as they need the love of their mothers. Marcy Lawrence of Richfield, Minnesota tells about one of her best friends in high school, Sue. Like many girls at that age, Sue had a steady boyfriend, and they saw each other several times a week. In addition, at night, when he would leave and back out of her parent's driveway, Sue would always flip the front-porch light on and off. When her father asked the reason, she explained that it was her way of saying, "I love you." 

A year after her high-school graduation, Sue decided to move into an apartment. One evening, as she pulled out of the driveway with the last load of her belongings, her father stood, somewhat emotional, at the front door, switching the porch light on and off, on and off, on and off. Dads, how do you sons and daughters know that you love them? How do you show it? How do you communicate it? One of the greatest gifts that you can give to your children is the knowledge that they are loved, fully and unconditionally by their father. 

In addition, there is some extra payoff when fathers openly and genuinely love their children...their children will find it much easier to relate to a heavenly Father, and to appreciate his love and acceptance...so dads, give your kids love...lots and lots and lots of love.

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's pastor once again slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit, and gave a very brief introduction of his childhood friend. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit to speak, "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific Coast," he began,
"when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to Get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright, and the three were swept into the ocean." The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. He continued, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life ... to which boy he would throw the other end of the line? He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!' he threw the line to his son's friend. By the time he pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beyond the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered." By this time, the two teenagers were sitting straighter in the pew, waiting for the next words to come out of the old man's mouth. 

"The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son. How great is the love of God that He should do the same for us." 

With that,
the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as Silence filled the room. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was a nice story," politely started one of the boys, "but I don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, and he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? However, I am standing here today to tell you that THAT story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His Son for me...

You see...I was the son's friend.

Let Life Come In

Let Life Come In!

I Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17

“Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’”

When you raise a man from the dead, word about you tends to spread—fast and far, deep and near, it’s the compassion of the act we hear—and then each of us will wonder, where, O God, is my miracle?

Surely, the widows in both our passages this morning were wondering where their miracle was; they surely questioned why God had left them bereft and without protection from the ways of the world.        

To be a widow in biblical times, when the husbands are gone and then the sons, there is no one to protect the widow from abject poverty, to love away her loneliness, or to restore her faith after she abandons her hope.

 The widow of Nain would spend the rest of her days on the ledge of a living death. So when we read of widows’ tears, we must remember that her sorrow is not just the despair over a husband’s or child’s death, it is also a fear of the hungry, roaring lion lurking always at her door.

Picture the Lord as he reaches out his hand to touch the funeral bier—an act according to the Law that would render him ritually unclean—but Christ wasn’t thinking about the Law; he was thinking about the son…and he was empathizing with the woman. “You and I see the suffering of a widow at the loss of her son. What we do not see is the suffering of a woman who has lost everything. It is to this deeper suffering that Jesus speaks.”[1]

He was the embodiment of God’s compassion in that moment—the hands and heart, the legs and feet of a loving God who reached out to touch her right where it hurts, who walks beside us to share the weight of the burdens we cannot escape. “Don’t cry,” Jesus whispers; “Believe.” And life came in; the boy on the bier began to move and to speak. His shroud was shed, “and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Lk 7:14b).

The power of what faith can do was a normal, regular thing to Jesus, so in many respects he would not have thought of the raising of the Widow of Nain’s son as anything as mindboggling as a miracle. The witnesses in both processions—the ones heading into Nain and the ones heading out—they were the ones who spread that “m” word, miracle, all over Israel.

Neither Elijah nor Jesus was wearing one of those sign boards you once seen on homeless people in the city with words like, “The End is Near” or “Jesus is Coming.” The women could barely see straight for their despair; it’s highly unlikely they recognized either man as a miracle worker, nor as anything other than a regular ol’ Joe, let alone a great prophet of God.

When my step-father, Bob, moved in with us, I did not recognize who he was—a man sent from God—either. I didn’t really figure it out until he became sick—mesothelioma. Yet before he got sick, he was so good to all of us; but, of course, he was especially good, loving and kind to my mother. He respected her, he loved her. He even bought a big boat and named it after her! The Marcia Ann. When Bob married my mother, it was the happiest day of my life!

Bob did so many things for us; he took care of all the neglect we had experienced before—physically like putting a new roof on the house, fixing things, fixing us. For the first time in a very long time, everything worked in the house; everything worked with us as a family. Bob brought life into our house. He was a miracle to us, a gift of compassion from a gracious and loving God.

Bob was an Irishman, he did not get angry often, but when he got did, WOW! Clear the deck! But his anger was a righteous anger—almost always in defense of my mother. Elijah, I imagine, sounded like my step-father when he blasted one of us kids about the way we had treated my mother in some incident.

Elijah was incensed with God for rewarding the widow’s kindness to Elijah by killing her son. “Have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying?!!! O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again!” (1 Kings 17:21b).

After the diagnosis and learning what mesothelioma is, I prayed and prayed that God would spare my step-father. I had a dream one night. I was pushing a wheelbarrow in the dark, and at the end of a long road, bound on both side by tall evergreens, I went through a stone gate into a cemetery.

Crooked though they were, each grave had a cross on it, and all the crosses were gleaming white, so bright against the black, moonless night. I let go of the wheelbarrow, turned around and walked home, but the light stayed with me.

I do not have to interpret the dream; I know what it means. What I did not know at the time was that my prayers would lead me to identify the everyday miracle, the way God puts people in our lives, grants us blessings, works in our circumstances to bring life in and keep us going when we’d rather eat our last meal and die.

The Widow of Zarephath and the Widow of Nain were real people. Just like them, all of us have suffered losses in our lives that have near destroyed us…and yet...God provides the miracle by sending the one we need. Hear God’s compassion for you in your pain: “Don’t cry; believe.”

Jesus is the one whom God gives us that we may learn how to let life come inside us, where wheelbarrows of our hurts and disappointments and frustrations are filled to overflowing and weigh us down so grievously.  

What’s in your wheelbarrow? Wheel it to God; give it to God. Take up instead the simple tools of faith, like the widow’s last little bit of meal and oil, and trust God to feed you with all that you need for each day. Such shall then be your testimony.

Show others who hunger and are heavy-laden the same Christ-like compassion you have received. There are many invisible sufferers in our midst, they still cry to the Lord and weep, Where, O God, is my miracle?

Look in the mirror, brothers and sisters. You, me, we are their miracle. Raising people from the dead can be an everyday occurrence. Touch the bier, and those who mourn shall surely feel the hand of God and the compassion of Christ coming through just regular ol’ you and me. Are you ready for a miracle? Amen.

 

June 9, 2013

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1, p 117.