What does it mean to offer our tithes and offerings? We’re going to focus on this very important topic and how it relates to living transformed lives.
In keeping with our water image, the title of the message today is “Pennies in the Fountain.” When you throw pennies into a fountain, you release them and give them away. And that’s really what we are doing when we offer our gifts to God and the church. We release them and give them away.
Think about how God is a generous giver. Listen to Psalm 103: “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things.”
Our whole concept of giving corresponds to how God has given to us. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Thank God for his Son—a gift too wonderful for words!”
Giving is an integral part of the Christian faith because God is so generous to us. But it also carries with it an implication that we are to share these blessings with others. God doesn’t give to us so that we can keep these gifts to ourselves. God gives to us so that we can experience the joy of giving.
Jesus commanded: “Give as freely as you have received!” In Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, we read: “God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
Part of the essential nature of our growth in the Christian faith — and part of receiving all that God wants to give us as we move on toward perfection — is understanding that giving in freedom is a crucial aspect of our Christian life. God is very generous to us, and God expects us to pass it on.
Since giving can be a very touchy and personal issue, let’s focus on the question: why should we give? For today, I’d like to offer three reasons from what really is a lengthy list of reasons on why giving is one of the essential ways that we experience transformation in our lives.
The first reason is that giving reminds us that God has given us everything we have. The idea of stewardship is that we don’t own or earn anything. Instead, God gives to us and we are called to be good stewards of what we have received.
Deuteronomy, chapter 6, contains this reminder: “When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the Lord.” Then in Deuteronomy, chapter 8: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth . . . ” May we never begin to think, “Look what I have accomplished,” but rather remember it is God who has given us all food, land, property, wealth, prosperity, and more.
1 Chronicles 29:1 says, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything that we have has come from you, and we give you only what you have given us!”
The key understanding of stewardship is that we give because God has given us everything.
A second reason for giving is that it reveals our priorities. The Bible says we are to seek God’s kingdom first. How do we know that God is first in our lives? I think that our giving can reveal our priorities.
Deuteronomy 14:23 spells it out for us: “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to fear the Lord your God.” Jesus also made it clear when he explained one of the bedrock principles of life found in Matthew 6:21 “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and your thoughts will also be.”
A great way to see who or what is first in your life, is to review your bank statement. Where we spend our money, time, and energy indicates what is really first in our lives, what we really worship. “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.”
There’s a powerful third reason for giving: It offers us an opportunity to see how God is present in our lives.. Malachi 3:10 offers these words:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me show how I am present in your life.”
As we give generously, we are able to see the many ways that God is present with us. Positive things happen in our lives and in our church when we offer to God our very best.
Let’s look at another question: How much should I give? This is a question that we are all invited to think about.
You often hear the word, “tithe” mentioned a lot. What is a tithe? Well, it literally means a tenth. And the reason that word is used when referring to our financial gifts to the church is because the people of Israel were told to give back a tenth of their produce. That tenth or that tithe symbolized their many blessings from God.
And so every time we set aside a portion of our financial income each year and then write out checks or make online gifts, it reminds us that the gifts and blessings we have are all from God. Penny and I had always written checks out to the church but when we came here we set up an automatic payment through the church’s online giving.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like this new method of giving to the church, but whenever I get a notice that a payment to the church was made, it’s still a way to be reminded that God has blessed us in so many ways.
For some of us, it might be difficult to imagine setting aside an amount each year to give to the church.
A pastor shares the story of a single mom who was in that situation. She hadn’t grown up with setting aside a portion of income to give to God and the church. Her parents had given once in a while to the church without putting a whole lot of thought into it, so that was her experience with giving while growing up as a child.
Well, she heard a sermon on giving one week. And she felt motivated to begin thinking about giving a portion of her income to the work of Christ and his church. It was difficult to add this as a new expense in her budget, but she did anyway because she just knew deep down in her heart that it would be a significant way to show her appreciation to God for the blessings in her life.
So even though she had very little left over after paying her expenses each month, she re-examined her spending habits and she was able to include a generous amount to give to the church. And every time she wrote out a check to put in the offering at church, she would think about what a difference God was making in her life and how her gift would help to bless other people through her church.
After a few months, she noticed something interesting. Even though her income remained the same and she added giving to the church as part of her budget, she somehow had more money in her bank at the end of the month than she ever had before she started to tithe. Her faithfulness seemed to be leading to even greater blessings in return.
I can tell you that one of the most freeing and liberating things that’s happened in the lives of so many people is when they came to the point that they said “God, I want you to be first place in everything that I do.” And a good place to start is with the level of generosity that we seek to bless God and others.
As a pastor, I think one of the things that keeps us from experiencing true transformation is when we forget just how much God has blessed us and the joy it can offer us in knowing that we are extending God’s love toward others. Where we put our money indicates where our values and our priorities really are.
Now, the last question: how should we give? We talked about why we should give and how much we should give. But let’s think about the attitude in which we give. Here are three brief thoughts on this.
First thing is…to give willingly. We’re not to do it because the church is going to make us feel guilty. We’re not to do it because we want to impress somebody. We are invited to do it willingly. Joyfully.
Secondly, to give sacrificially. It’s important to give willingly, and also sacrificially. I’m reminded of a C. S. Lewis quote. He said “The only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.” Consider the story in Luke about sacrificial giving:
Jesus went over to the collection box in the Temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies.
He called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
We would expect the disciples looked at him in amazement. They probably said something like, “You don’t really understand much about economics, do you? She didn’t give the most; she gave the least.”
Then Jesus would’ve explained, “You might understand economics, but you don’t understand people. This woman gave all that she had. Others just gave a token out of their surplus.”
We are invited to give willingly and sacrificially. And we’re invited to give expectantly.
In Luke chapter 6 we are told, that if you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.
Like prayer and weekly worship that we have looked at the first two weeks of this series, our giving is another that God waters and refreshes our souls. It’s how we experience transformed living.
*This sermon is based on the resource, Treasures of the Transformed Life, Abingdon Press, 2006.
How do you remember the good things God has done for you?
Giving our resources generously to Christ and his church helps us to live a transformed life. Giving generously 1) reminds us that God has given us everything, 2) reveals our priorities, and 3) helps us to see how God is present in our lives.
Which of the three areas listed above stand out for you the most? Why?
Our attitude toward giving to Christ and his church is very important. In the sermon, we focused on the important of giving 1) willingly 2) sacrificially, and 3) expectantly.
Why do you think that these three attitudes toward giving are important?
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