Give as God has Given - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Malachi 3:4-12, the people of Israel are rebuked for neglecting their tithes. Through Christ we are freed from the specifics of the law, but we remain called to generosity.
Transcript:
There's nothing quite like a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. I don't bake them, but I sure do eat them. In our house, I am the taste tester, a cookie connoisseur. When Sara bakes a fresh batch of cookies, she often tests it out on me, and I think part of the reason why is she can read me like a book as to whether I actually like it or not.
Now, usually she makes the cookies fairly big, following in the footsteps of her father, who makes them often the size of small plates. So I want you to imagine a scene with me in which he has just baked a batch of these chocolate chip cookies and brought one over for me to try. I take a bite. It's delicious, I tell her. Now imagine she asks if she can have a bite of the cookie she just gave me. If I were to say, no, this is my cookie, wouldn't that seem a bit wrong? In truth, all the cookies are hers. She made them and she's sharing one with me. On top of this, they're big cookies, there's plenty for me to give back to her.
While we don't usually think of cookies as a matter of justice, we might even say there's something injust in my refusal to give back some of what I've received from her. Instead of such stinginess, we'd hope I would instead be eager to give her a piece because of my gratitude towards her for being the baker that she is.
Now you weren't expecting we were gonna go so deep on cookies this morning, were you? I start this way because I think it'll help us to begin to understand God's complaint against the Israelites in today's verses in Malachi. I also think that it will help us begin to understand this concept of giving some of what we have received towards the worship of God.
So we turn to the text, Malachi three. We're starting in verses six through nine. Again, it says, I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, how are we to return?
Will a mere mor rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are robbing me. God begins his examination of the Israelites along these lines first by saying this.
He notes this about himself. I the Lord do not change so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Now we know already from what we've covered in Malachi, that there's a whole bunch of things that the Israelites are doing wrong with regard to their worship. They're offering polluted animal sacrifices less than the best to God. And this reflects badly not just on the people, but especially upon the priests who are not instructing the people in the way that they ought to.
It's, there's also the reality that there's sins going on in the land. We talked about sorcery, adultery, robbing the those who are poor of the justice that they deserve. So there's all sorts of things that would call for God to bring down the hammer on the Israelites, and he has disciplined them in the past, but he has not destroyed them even though they do deserve to be destroyed.
The reason for this is because of God's unchangeable plan, purpose, and character. It's because of God's goodness and faithfulness that they are not destroyed, and we could say that this would apply on the whole to all of humanity. Also, why didn't God just get rid of us completely? Well, it's because of who God is.
Because he is loving and faithful and he's desired to redeem a people for himself. And so even while we are rebellious here in the present moment, God continues to show his goodness towards us. Think about what Jesus says in Matthew 5: 45. He, talking of the Father, he says, the Father causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
So God is steadfast in his faithfulness to the people of Israel. In stark contrast, the Israelites are not. Ever since their ancestors, they've, they've turned away. And so the call that God wants to give to them is this, return back to me. Repent. Now you would think that perhaps this would be an opportunity for them to say, wow, God really has been patient with us.
But at least as Malachi is depicting it here, this is not the attitude of the people. And instead their attitude is this, how are we to return? And in verse eight, God tells them that well, you're robbing me, and they say, how? How are we robbing you? And God says, you've been robbing me of the tithes and offerings that are due unto me. Now, we've already noted already how they haven't been giving the offerings that they are supposed to, those animal sacrifices.
They've been giving less than their best. But now apparently they're also, they've also been short-changing God in the tithes that they were to be giving. So this idea of offering and tithes, they really go hand in hand, which leads us to ask, well, what is a tithe? Well, the word tithe means 10th, and it comes from the old English teotha, generally refers to the practice of giving a 10th of one's earnings or produce as part of one's religious practice or government taxation. Now the reason why I make it so broad is because we actually see tithing outside of Israel. It wasn't something that was exclusive to them, but it's a term that's typically associated with biblical practice.
Now, the first cases of this that we find in scripture are in the case of Abraham and Jacob. Genesis 14, 19 through 20, when Abram is meeting with Melchizedek, after defeating his enemies, Melchizedek says, blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a 10th of everything. It's interesting, and the writer of Hebrews suggests that Melchizedek was functioning in a priestly sort of capacity here, and that because he wasn't of the line of the Levites, Melchizedek,, he's a type of of Christ, so that we would say that Christ is kind of this, this priest of Melchizedek and that Abraham, even himself, paid a tithe to him. And we see in Genesis 28, 20 through 22, in the case of Jacob, Jacob makes a vow saying If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I'm taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's household, the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will give you a 10th. The thing that's interesting about these cases is they don't indicate a regular practice of tithing necessarily. In the case of Abraham, we only have a report of a one-off. He, he's gotten all this plunder from the enemies that he's conquered and he offers God, he offers a tithe to Melchizedek, ultimately to God, if Melchizedek is, because Melchizedek is operating in this priestly capacity. In the case of Jacob, it's interesting because it's contingent. He says, if, if you do these things for me, God, I'm going to give you this tithe. But he is not giving him a tithe right then and there.
So those are the first instances that we have, and this occurs before the Mosaic law. Now, where we see details about a regular tithe being offered emerge is when the Mosaic law has been, has been given. And under the Mosaic law we find three tithes established. The first is in the case of a tithe to the Levites.
Now, just on the whole, something just to understand about these tithes that are being stipulated here is that they're applied to agricultural produce, that is to crops and to animals. There's nothing in the text that talks about them tithing money. Now you could say, well, the, certainly the crops and the animals are, have monetary value, and that's, that's certainly true, but there's just nothing there talking about a tithe of money being given. Now, there was a temple tax that that had come into place, and we see in Exodus 30: 16 of how all the people were to make atonement for themselves by giving a half shekel. But we just don't, again, we don't see any tithing of money.
We see it applied just to what is brought forth from the land of Israel itself. So the first tithe that we see is a tithe to the Levites, and we see some details about this in numbers 18 and also in Leviticus 27. But I, I think Nehemiah actually gives us some of the best detail of this. And Nehemiah 10 verses 37 B through 39 says, and we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect, collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and then the Levites are to bring a 10th of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the store rooms and the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the store rooms where the articles for the sanctuary and for the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the musicians are also kept. We will not neglect the house of our God.
So the first one that we see here is that in the towns, in the localities where people are living, they are giving this tithe to the Levites. Now, Levites were the tribe of Israel that was not given an inheritance of land in Israel.
They, they lived throughout the land of Israel. They were dedicated to the service of the temple both as kind of helpers, but then also as certain of them as priests, and so in order for them to be supported, because they didn't have land to support themselves by, they were to be supported by these tithes from the people.
And what we see here is that of the tithe that the Levites receive here, they also take a tithe of that tithe and send it to the temple. Altogether this is supporting the functioning of the temple. So that's the first tithe we see. Then we see that there's another tithe that's given that's pretty interesting.
In Deuteronomy 14 verses 22 through 27, we see a tithe that called for, that invites the people to feast before the presence of God. Says be sure to set aside a 10th of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.
But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and you cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose.
Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle sheep, wine or other fermented drink or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
So again, a very interesting tithe because the purpose was to draw people into the presence of God. It says in verse 23, So that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. So rather than just leaving it to the Levites to bring this produce in, God says, I want you yourself to actually come to me, to come to the place where I'm dwelling, where my presence is manifest in the temple, and eat and feast before, in my, in my presence.
This is something that we don't think about a lot of times with the sacrifices. It's not as though they just put the sacrifices on the altar and they just burned them up. There was an eating component involved in here, and this brings to mind all the things when we think about communion, entering into communion with God and thinking about Christ as this sacrifice offered up to God and how he brings us into fellowship with God and, and so, and we can see very much how this, the purpose is that, that we would feast is that if they can't bring all their animals cause it's too far of a journey, then they're supposed to sell them, take the money, and then buy new animals, new, new crops, wine there in order to have this feast. And then, and again, there's a note here not to neglect the Levites living in your town, so make sure that they're, they're taken care of here.
Then there's this third tithe. This third tithe that happens every three years. And this is a tithe that's collected to help support the poor and also the Levites. Just in the next couple verses. Deuteronomy 14, 28 through 29, at the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your own, in your towns so that the Levites who have no allotment or inheritance of their own and the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied so that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands. So we see that a tithe is collected not only for the support of the functioning of the temple, but also so that those who are poor, who don't have enough means for themselves, that they too are also taken care of. So taken altogether, averaged out. Dr. Sam Storms estimates that what we're looking at here is approximately like 21.7% tithe each year.
Now, when we think about tithing, we don't usually think about that. We usually think just 10%, but if we take all the details together, that's how much they were actually tithing in the Old Testament. Now, again, the concern here is with worship support for the temple structure, but we also see here God's heart for the poor and recognizing the dignity of these people as God's image bearers, that they are to be taken care of.
And so it's because the people have been failing to follow God's command in this regard that he says that they've been robbing him. So they're under a curse. And turning to verses 10 through 11, we see how God instructs the Israelites, how they should change course.
He says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I'll not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I'll prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, says the Lord Almighty.
Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. So again, here, we should think of a literal storehouse because if you're bringing in these, these animals, these crops, they have to have a place to store all these things. God's inviting them, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and when you do that, God tells the people that your curse is going to turn into a blessing because he's going to give you more than enough, all that you're gonna need. So the the storehouse is full and you yourself also have plenty. And then as a result, all the nations, in verse 12, it says, all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land because the land is bringing forth so much produce to go towards this, this tithe. Now that brings us to consider, well, what does this text mean for us today? Because there's no simple copy and paste here. There's, we're no longer offering any temple sacrifices. And there's no longer any tribe of Levites that we are supporting.
And even, in fact, modern Jews today, in terms of the tithe that they collect, they don't do it along these lines because of these realities. There's some of them, a number of them that will give a tithe towards charity, 10%. But more importantly than this, than just the fact that we can't, we just can't follow the Old Testament tithe that is stipulated here is there's no command to tithe in the New Testament. Christ in introducing the new Covenant does not put any stipulations there that this law of tithe would continue to apply. And so this raises a question, are Christians required to tithe 10% of their income? Now, there's a long tradition here of Christians doing that. And it goes back to, we see it in terms of a council go all the way back to the Council of Macon in like around 585 AD. There's a letter from some bishops and tours that, that indicated that yes, this should be expected of all Christians, that they would give this tithe, but before then, before 500 years after the days of the early church, the record is less clear about that being an absolute expectations that Christians would give 10%.
What we do see is that there's some expectation that ministers would be supported. We see in this text called the Didache, which some of you may have heard of before, this is a text that was written around 100 AD. So not written by the apostles, but likely by people that had contact with the apostles.
And one of the things that it offers for instruction is the support of prophets. In chapter 13 of, of the Didache, I'm not gonna read it all. The, the point that's being made here is that prophets, any true prophet, any teacher who would dwell with you, should be supported by the first fruits.
And it seems to be going back to it's, it is looking back to the Old Testament. Saying that, take the first fruit as it may seem good to you, and give according to the command. Now, it's interesting there that it says, as it may seem good to you, so does that kind of open up, you know, is this, are we just leaning on this as a principle rather than, again, establishing this as a strict rule, you've gotta give 10%. Something else that's just interesting kind of side note about the Didache is that before this, it gives all kinds of instruction about how people should be very careful about not giving to people that are money grubbing. So those, those people that are on television basically, that are saying you've gotta send in your money to be blessed, the Didache says no, those guys are false prophets. Moving on a little bit further on, we see in the, in the case of Justin Martyr, writing in his first apology, which would've been, apology, would've meant, means defense. He's not apologizing for anything. This was written around 1 55 AD and he describes the practice of, of early Christians when they would gather together for worship.
He says, and the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through his Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place and they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. So we do see a parallel here in that the poor are being taken care of, that continues on between Old and New Testament, but there's no stipulation here that every person is to give 10%.
And it says that they're really relying quite a bit on those that do have means to give, to provide those means. We go to the book Against Heresies, written by Irenaeus. This would've been around 180 AD and he has some interesting notes that will bring us into the New Testament when it comes to giving.
He provides some commentary on the New Testament, really, he says, and for this reason, did the Lord instead of that commandment, you shall not commit adultery, forbid even concupiscence; and instead of that which runs thus, you shall not kill, he prohibited anger. So what he's doing here is saying that he's referring to the Sermon on the Mount.
I know it's a little fancy words here. He's, what he is saying is, is that Jesus said, you're not to commit adultery, well, you shouldn't even lust after someone in your own heart. You're not supposed to murder, you shouldn't even hate someone in your own heart. Then he goes on to speak of tithes and he says, instead of the law enjoining the giving of tithes, he told us to share all our possessions with the poor; and not to love our, our neighbors only, but even our enemies.
And he goes on talking about how we should be giving, and then towards the end he says. So that we may not grieve as those who are unwilling to be defrauded, but may rejoice as those who have given willingly, and as rather conferring a favor upon our neighbors rather than yielding to necessity. So it's interesting here that Irenaeus seems to note that in Christ we have moved beyond the law, which enjoins the giving of tithes to something much greater, which is this: that we are to be ready to share all of our possessions with the poor. Now, in a later chapter, he also says this, and for this reason, they, the Jews had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated to him, but those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord's purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since the, since they have the hope of better things hereafter; as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God. And there Irenaeus is talking about the the widow who gave just a mite and she gave, and Jesus says that she gave more than everyone else.
So what we see here, kind of between Justin and Irenaeus is this idea that as Christians everything is on the table in terms of what we are to be ready to give unto God as the need may require. And we see this really reflected in the teachings of Christ in several spots. In Luke, in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus makes this fairly clear. He says, Luke 6: 38. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 12:33 to sell your possessions, give to the, give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 18:22, when he encountered a young man who felt like he had done all that the law required.
Jesus tells him this. He says, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. So what Jesus, again is establishing here is not, he's saying, we're moving beyond this, okay, you're giving the minimum stipulation that the law requires to this idea that I'm ready to give everything away because I have something so much greater secure for me in the kingdom of God, so that I'm going to give as, as, as God leads me. Now, the leading purpose that we see here in, in these verses is again this idea of helping those who are in need. And this would especially include those who are in the church.
Now, we recently were in the Book of Acts. You'll remember that it's noted how all the believers shared everything in common. It says no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they shared everything they had. And in verse 34, it says there were no needy persons among them from, but from, for, from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. So again, we don't see any sort of law here. What we do see is radical giving. People are selling land, selling property, and they're not just giving 10% of the sales.
They're giving all of it to the church.
What Jesus is introducing here is an, is a new relationship to our possessions, helping us to understand that what we have should be ready to be deployed for the purposes of the Kingdom of God. And so the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4: 28, when he, when talking about calling people towards righteous ways of making a living, saying Stop stealing, he says that the purpose is this and it beyond our work, says, Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Now that's something that, that mindset is something that is entirely different than kind of the popular American mindset where I work to kind of amass this huge heap for myself so I can live in, in comfort and luxury. That's, that's not the purpose of our work. That's not the purpose of our gain. According to Paul, the reason why we would seek to gain more would be so that we would be able to give more to others.
Now also in the New Testament, we do see in line with what the Didache was was talking about is this idea of continuing to support the work of ministry, which means supporting the min, the ministers of the, of the gospel. Paul talks about this in First Timothy five, but he also, adds quite a bit of detail in First Corinthians nine, especially as it relates to himself.
First Corinthians nine, starting verse seven. He says, who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends to flock and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn't the law say the same thing? And kind of continuing along those lines, we get to verse 13.
He says, don't you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? So he is recalling here a bit, you know, some of the precedent in, in the Old Testament. In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
But I have not used any of these rights, and I'm not writing this in the hope that you'll do such things for me, for I'd rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. So Paul, Paul's straddling an interesting line here because he wants to be clear that those who are engaged in gospel ministry, yeah, that would include pastors, but I, I don't think it would be restricted to pastors. We think about missionaries, anyone who's engaged in a, in the work of the gospel to a great extent, so that's taking up lots of their time. They, they're worthy of being supported. But in the case of Paul, he's saying, in my case, I am laying aside that right.
Because he didn't want anyone to accuse him that, oh, he's in, he's in this for the money. So he, he's, and the way that Paul often supported himself was by making tents. It's interesting, Paul was a tent maker, and we see how ministers do operate in that way. Some, some are not. They don't ask for support for their gospel ministry.
Others work bi vocationally and some are full-time ministers. And there's all different things to think about in, in terms of why those different versions of of ministry might be supported in the ways that they are. Now when we think about that, part of it comes down to this, is that in order to actually engage in the work of ministry, at bottom, it requires time. And so if we're supporting ministers to be about the work of the gospel and they're doing, they're spending a lot of their time doing it, then kind of like the Levites who didn't have land, they're not gonna have time to work other jobs to support that. But again, there's no absolute rule that's put in place here that that has to be the case. And I, for instance, I know of a pastor, a group of pastors actually in, of a church down in North Carolina where it's like three of them and three of them minister in the church, but they also work part-time jobs.
He works in the church. He's also a chaplain. I also think he works for the denomination, and I think the same is true for the other, other ministers. Now, there's some certain advantages with that. You've got three, three ministers that are being able to be supported, even if they're not being all supported full time.
In my case, the support that's given to me, it enables me to be able to serve the church in preparing the sermon, being able to visit, visit with people, disciple people, and that's a ministry that you all have a part in, in making that possible. Basically if, if we didn't have the funds to do that, then a lot of that would fall.
We, we wouldn't be able to do as much as we're able to do. And so when we think about giving, it's very much need based. And we're also thinking about what are we trying to support doing here? Everything is ultimately being directed towards what are the things that are going to accumulate towards the worship of God, so that we give money so that the lights stay on, so that people can gather here, so that we can worship with people, so that we can reach people with the gospel.
So these would be the parallels between the old and New Testament. Yes, we don't have this temple sanctuary to upkeep and animals to offer, but we continue to have a ministry that needs to be supported in order that people may be brought together by all sorts of means to offer worship unto God. Now, we see later on in First Corinthians really the heart that stands behind the giving that we're called to have. In Second Corinthians nine verses six through 15.
Paul says this, remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God's able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you'll abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for the, for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
So it's interesting, you see some kind of parallels between here and Malachi in the promise that is given. Going on to verses 11 through 15, you'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and for your generosity and sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Now, the occasion of this passage was that Paul was taking up a collection for those living in Jerusalem, so it wasn't, it wasn't a weekly collection that he is talking about, like the weekly collection that might be taken in the church. But the same principle basically applies here, which is that throughout what we see here in the New Testament is an invitation to free and cheerful giving, no longer under the stipulations of the law. And again, the purpose is that it would increase the worship of God. So in this case, in terms of meeting the needs of others, as other people receive the support, what is the result? They give thanks to God!
They say, praise God. Thank you, God, that you've helped meet my need, and he's met this need through his people. So in Malachi's day, the people of Israel were under the old covenant, in which an exact tithe, amounting to around 20% was due to God to promote his worship. It supported the Levites, the workers of the temple, it brought people to Jerusalem to feast in God's presence, and it uplifted those who were poor. It was a serious injustice that the Israelites were not giving God his due in this regard. Underlying all of this is the tacit acknowledgement that everything we receive comes from God. We can't take the credit.
God makes this clear when he promises the people that if they'll just give, he'll make sure that they have enough. The heart issue is brought to the surface. The issue is that they don't want to share the cookie that they've received, and they don't particularly care about God receiving the worship he's due.
So what does this mean for us who live under the new Covenant established by Christ? Well, I think we can say that we are no longer under the law. We couldn't follow the Old Testament to a T even if we wanted to. The Jews themselves aren't able to do this today, and I haven't talked about the Sabbath this morning, but I think there's an important, important comparison here.
The principle of Sabbath is valuable, taking rest and worshiping God, and we should strive to do this together as we gather here for worship on the Lord's Day, Sunday. Even so, we are no longer under the Sabbath law, being compelled to cease from labor on Saturdays, the actual seventh day, Christ has fulfilled the Sabbath, he is our Sabbath rest. The same applies with tithing. There are no stipulations in the New Testament that we must give 10% of our income. Instead, what we find is something so much better.
In Christ, the law is written on our hearts so that rather than concerning ourselves with percentages, we say this, everything I have belongs to the Lord.
I will give all that He calls me to give. So rather than just clinging to our 90% and saying, okay, I've done my 10%, and now all the rest is for me, in Christ, we are being formed into generous people, passionate about seeing our God be praised. So we give to help the poor, that they may give thanks to God because of us, we give to support the church so that we might have a place to gather for worship, so that the body may be served, so that ministers of the gospel may be afforded the time to put their gifts to work.
It all accumulates to the worship of God, the worship that again, he is due. I have to say that, you know, there's, there's times where in, in sermon's past where I've called out the congregation a little bit and said, you know, I think this is an area we need to work on. I think this is an area where this church has been so faithful.
I just wanna encourage you in that you've been so faithful in your giving, and again, we're not under the law here so that we should be concerned about like, oh, you know, I'm not doing exactly 10% or this figure, or that figure. There's no judgment here. Now, if we, if we all together are like, I'm not giving anymore, then I, I think the condemnation we find in Malachi would apply, where we're not giving God his due given all that he has given us.
I don't, I don't see that here. And so what God's inviting us into is just cheerful giving, freely giving, not, not giving of like, oh, I've got, I have to do this. Or, or feeling guilty. No, just, we are invited to seek the Lord as, as we consider giving. We're invited to come and seek guidance from the Lord.
Make yourself aware of the needs of the church and our community and consider how he's calling you to help. And if you know what you're supposed to be, if he reveals that to you, you don't do that, and maybe you will deal with some, some guilt that maybe you should be experiencing. But the point is, is to really think about what God wants you to be doing here and now. In some seasons, maybe you'll give more.
In some seasons you may not be able to give as much, you might give less, and we know that this will be true of, of one another, that our circumstances will vary. In all seasons, we are called to rise together to the occasion of need, trusting that God will give us all that is required, both for the church and for our own sustenance.
And so whenever and whatever you give, do so with a cheerful heart because you know that you're doing what God wants you to do. You're bringing praise to his name. Let's pray.
Dear Father, you have given us so much.
As we look across the world and how many people live in great want and need, we have been blessed with what we have.
And even if we were to lose all that we have, father, you have given us something that is priceless in the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, that in him we have secured an eternal inheritance that will not rust away, that cannot be stolen. Father, we pray that we would step into the liberty that we enjoy under the new covenant, not with hearts that would see this as an opportunity to hold back more for ourselves, father, but rather that we would see this as.
A great act of grace that you have invited us to give of what we have received from you cheerfully. And so Father, we pray that you would help us to do that, that you'd help us become aware of, of needs around us, both in and outside of the church Father, and that you would inspire within us generosity. That, that you would make us generous like Christ and that Father, that you would give us the means that may be needed for us to offer this support. Father, if we seek to gain anything, father, help us to do so with the inspiration, with the goal of gaining in order to give more to others, to your church for your praise Father.
That's the point of it all, is so that you would be worshiped.
Father, make this our joy in seeking your praise by what, whatever we can give based on what we've received from you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)