In our last blog we explored how we as a society spend so much of our time talking about money. We discuss it with friends, we read about it in the papers, we think about it, and we plan our lives with it in mind—often to our detriment.
We can't deny that we spend so much of our time considering money and what it means to us. However In church, we can often feel like we want to shy away from the topic; we can give the impression that we don’t want to spend time talking about it.
When we open scripture we find that God definitely does not want to shy away from the topic. In fact scripture does spend a lot of time talking about money. Across all the books of the Bible, there are roughly 2350 verses about or mentioning money. That's nearly 15% of the whole Bible.
When you look at just the scriptures where Jesus is speaking, the same is true—about 15% of what he had to say when here on earth touches on this topic. Sixteen of the 38 parables have something to do with money!
Years ago, when I went to Bible college, I was taught to look at scripture for the moments where God repeats himself. God, who makes no mistakes and capable of expressing himself perfectly every time, has no need to waste words. If he says something twice, it is for our benefit—not his. What does it tell us, then, that his word deals with this topic so often and in so much depth?
With so much of our lives spent dealing with money, and so much of God's word focused on the topic, we don’t have the luxury of deciding it is a topic that we are going to shy away from. Our purpose in this series is to look at money differently—through the lens of what it means to be generous: why we give, how we do that, and what a new understanding of generosity does for us.
The Tithe is Not a Gift—We Are Returning What God Already Owns
Imagine a cold day - wind blowing and a hint of icy cold rain in the air. Now I notice you have not brought a jacket and having an additional one with me I hand you one to wear. Later you hand me back the jacket. On returning it to me would you tell me that you were giving me a gift? Of course not! The jacket was already mine, and while you are literally giving it - the fact that I own it means it is not a gift.
Well Everything we have—God has given us, by his grace. In essence his hand is evident in our lives, our talents, abilities, even our physical bodies are his gifts - whatever we create and earn with what he has given us belongs to him - when we return it to him we 'give' it, but it is not a 'gift'
The Tithe is Not a Transaction, It is an Act of Worship
Our modern world with cash, credit, and bank accounts has created a mindset where we see everything as a transaction. I have heard a lot of people treat the tithe as a transaction. "I give to God, and He will bless me."
Our modern experience is one of paypass - and bank accounts, where everything has a price and we can buy what we can afford. Should we then expect that the Tithe is simply the price for receiving God's favor?
While it’s true that God is faithful to His word and will pour out blessings on us if we faithfully follow His commands, we need to understand that the tithe cannot be treated like a transaction. When we bring the tithe, we are not engaging in a transaction. We are engaging in worship.
Looking at Abraham who set the pattern for how we tithe, when he 'gave a tenth of everything he had' we have to think about what this would have looked like to someone living 4000 years ago. Here we see a people who would have taken their tithe, a physical animal or a quantity of produce and given it up - sacrificed it on an alter often. This was certainly not a transaction. In the moment this would have felt like an act of worship - a very real act of worship.
The Tithe is to Be Our ‘First Fruits’—We Need to Bring Our Best!
Again I am going to ask you to use your imagination. This time lets imagine that you own a sheep farm.
This year has been a good year and your flock has been blessed! In fact one of your flock, Ryan the Ram has received a best in show award at the fair.
Ryan is a living, breathing, physical example of the fruitfulness that God has enabled in your life.
He is not alone in your flock however - in fact you possess a large number of other sheep on your farm. Some of them not as impressive. In fact at the other end of the scale there is another sheep. Betsy. She is not as lucky as Ryan, no awards for poor old Betsy. When you look at Betsy you see an old sheep, one that is on her last legs - she has seen better days. Now she is hardly able to move, is blind and is a sad sight.
In the time of the scriptures you would have taken an animal from the flock down to the priest to pay your tithe. Would you have taken Ryan or perhaps taken the aged Betsy in his place - and in this choice your attitude to the tithe would have been clear! Now we tithe in cash, or by bank transfer - we can be less confronted when we fall short in our tithe.
If we look to the example that Abram, the man who would become Abraham sets in Malachi we see that when he encountered a representative of the Most High God in the valley, his heart response was to give. This giving was an act of worship to God, out of a sense of awe and wonder.
How should we respond when we have encountered the Most High Himself? Shouldn’t we, like Abram, be compelled to worship fully—with our whole lives? As we have seen the tithe is worship. A response as part of a life of worship. We should not give because it is mandated; our giving should overflow from a heart full of awe and wonder after encountering the Most High. Recognizing His status as Lord, we respond.
If we live a life of worship, then how can we separate our finances from that lifestyle.
As we continue this series, we are forming in ourselves the same instinctive worship response that Abram had. Our lives are meant to be ones of wholehearted worship.
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