Ij
"Tithing and Your Heart" Genesis 14:18 Luke 11:37-46
by The Rev. Clancy Nixon
November 11, 2007
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, VA
www.holyspiritanglican.org.
A young man had an accident while driving his car that was quite spectacular. When
the policeman arrived he found the young man standing near his car mumbling. As the
officer approached he overheard the young man saying, "Oh, my BMW, my BMW, my
BMW!" Looking at the young man, the policeman said, "You must be in shock: look at the
condition of your arm - your left arm is mangled." The young man looked down and said,
"Oh my Rolex, my Rolex, my Rolex!" To a greater or lesser degree, most of us are
attached to our stuff, and it can be hard to let it go, much less to give it away. What you do
with your money is one important reading of the condition of your heart toward your stuff
and toward God.
I've noticed that there are a variety of teachings about money and giving that are
floating around in the church today. I want you to know what we teach here, and it is
rooted in what I believe the Bible teaches. In your blue pew Bibles, turn to page 12,
Genesis chapter 14. This tells the story of the Patriarch Abraham when he was still called
Abram, before God changed his name to Abraham. In chapter 14, we read the story of how
King Kedorlaomer of Elam ruled over Canaan and carried away Lot, Abram's nephew,
during a rebellion against Kedorlaomer. Abram leads his clan of only 318 men to rescue
Lot, and against the odds, he succeeds. Abram defeats Kedorlaomer, rescues Lot and
recovers a great deal plunder from the battle probably flocks, gold, weapons, fabric
anything of value that can be carried away.
In Genesis 14:18, now enters Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, King of
Salem and former vassal to King Kedorlaomer. Melchizedek brought out bread and wine
and blessed Abram, and blessed God Most High. Their response was Worship. They had
church! It was to celebrate their victory in battle; to celebrate their deliverance from
bondage to an evil King; it was to thank God for the unlikely victory. Melchizedek led
worship, and notice the response of Abram to the worship, verse 20: he gave this priest of
God, he gave Melchizedek, a tenth of the plunder. Abram gave a tithe, which means a tenth
of his income, to the man of God. This material giving was an essential part of Abram's
worship worship always involves some kind of sacrifice to God, when we acknowledge
that God is the author of all we have. When we put God first, we put him first over
everything, including our stuff. Jacob also tithed, and so God's people have always given a
tenth of what they make to the Lord.
The story of Abram's giving to Melchizedek takes place long before God gave the law
to Moses on Mt. Sinai, about 700 years earlier. Abram's motive to give to God was not law
the law had not yet been given. Abram's motive to give was not obedience to the letter of
any written law, but rather obedience to the law of the heart, an obedience that springs
from heartfelt worship.
About 700 years later, after the conquest of Joshua, the Promised Land was divided
among eleven of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Levites, the descendants of Israel's son
Levi, who were dedicated to the service of God, were given no inheritance of land as the
other tribes were. In those days, land and livestock were the source of most wealth. God
provided for the Levites by setting the tithe as a law the Israelites gave one tenth of all
their income to the priests for all the Levites. These men maintained the worship of God in
the tabernacle and Temple and Synagogue. In the Theocracy that was Israel, making the
tithe a law made perfect sense. (Even today, the Church of England is maintained by
national taxes as the state religion.)
By the time we get to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees,
who have made it the central occupation of their lives to obey all the written commands of
God in the Law of Moses, and also to obey the written traditions of the elders in
interpreting that law. The Pharisees often get a bad rap, because we often read of Jesus
criticizing their errors. It's important to note that the Pharisees devotion to the law of
Moses was their form of devotion to the same God we worship. Jesus tells us that the
Pharisees even tithe of the spices in their garden (Luke 22:23) "one tenth of their mint
and rue and other herbs." The problem was, Jesus tells us, that they "neglected the more
important matters of the law justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced
the former without neglecting the latter." In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:20,
Jesus says that "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
You may wonder, what does all this have to do with us, with Christians in America
today? Some teachers are now saying that the tithe does not apply to Christians, because we
are not under the law of Moses as were the Jews whom Jesus addressed. While I agree that
Christians are not obliged to obey the ceremonial and dietary laws, I believe that Christians
remain bound by the ethical demands of the Old Testament. Jesus tells us that justice and
mercy and righteousness are much weightier matters than whether our tithes are computed
down to the last penny, the last spice in our garden. Still, Jesus does say that tithing is good,
and not to be neglected. Jesus also says our righteousness needs to surpass that of the
Pharisees. Contrary to what some teach, this is not impossible. The only way that can
happen is if you and I are born again if we are new creatures whose hearts have been
completely changed by God. When our hearts are changed, it will show up in our
checkbooks! Deuteronomy 14:23 says, "The purpose of tithing is to teach you to put God
first in every area of your life." This verse says you don't tithe after you have become
spiritually mature; tithing helps you to become spiritually mature. The proportion of your
giving to God is one of the most important indicators of your heart condition toward God.
God does promise to bless your finances when you give to him generously! If you are
struggling financially, look at your spending to what? -decrease it. Look at your saving to
what? -increase it; and look also at your giving, to what? -increase it.
Use the 10-10-80 Plan. Most of you have heard before my advice for you about
money. I asked the Lord whether to tell this to you again this year, and he said yes, tell
them again, because they so often hear the world's plan for their money, they need to hear
my plan. You need goals in three areas of your finances: giving, saving, and spending.
Here is a simple formula you can use: Give 10%, save 10%, and live on the rest. Just do
these three things, and you'll have few financial problems your whole life. Give 10%, save
10%, and live on the rest. My own personal goals are to give 14%, save 14%, and live on
the rest, and Ginger and I have lived that way for almost our entire married lives. Once we
got there, giving has been an absolute joy for us. What a joy to respond to needs of
missionaries and to those in need, because we have already budgeted that 4% for offerings
above our tithe to the local church. When we have been disobedient, it has typically been
in the category of "living on the rest." For example, we sensed God's call to send our son
Will to prep school, but we could not afford that on our current income, so we paid for it
out of our savings. Because we had already saved 14% over the years, we were able to do
that.
2
Why 10-10-80? The minimum standard of giving in the Bible is the Tithe. I want to be
very clear what the tithe is; the tithe is 10% of your pre-tax income, off the top, to the local
church. When the Bible says 10%, it does not say that you calculate that 10% after you
have paid Caesar your taxes. It's 10% off the top.
The tithe operated in times of
oppressive taxation by occupying powers. It's the firstfruits, the first check you pay, before
your mortgage. And you bring your tithe to the storehouse, Malachi says, which means to
the local church, not your favorite TV preachers or conference speakers or missionaries--
that's what offerings are for. An offering is anything you give over and above your tithe
for example, your giving to the capital campaign for land and building for CHS is an
offering. After you give the tithe to the local church, and offerings to the wider church and
alms for the poor, from God's perspective, only then can you talk about generosity. I don't
consider my own giving to be generous only obedient. The tithe belongs to God, it is
sacred to him.
Get there gradually or immediately, but get there soon. When we take up our
offering, you've heard me say, "God loves a cheerful giver." The first part of that verse
from Second Corinthians reads, "Don't give reluctantly or under compulsion." Here is a
word of grace in the midst of the law. Friends, listen to me. If you can't bring yourself to
tithe now, then let this verse speak grace to you: give what you can give cheerfully. The
way to start is to give proportionally, and then raise that proportion over time. That is how
many of us got to tithing. Choose a percentage of your income that you and your mate feel
good about giving, that you can give cheerfully, without any resentment. Otherwise, that gift
is a "burnt offering;" the resentment that you attach to that gift burns and spoils it.
Resentment is poisonous.
Make a commitment to God that you will give proportionally, and that you will increase
your giving until you reach the tithe. Maybe you start at 2%, or 4%. Live with that for a
while, and determine to raise it until you give the full Tithe. As you get a raise in your
salary, you can raise the percentage of your giving. You can put your tax refund check to
your tithe. Every year, review your giving. Don't resent your giving! If you want to read a
bit more about giving, look at our FAQ stuffed in your bulletin frequently asked questions
about giving.
Some people say, "I can't afford to tithe." If I were a betting man, (in a Christian sort of
way, of course!), I'd bet that there was a time some of you parents said that about having
children, too. Somehow we make room in our budgets to provide for our children. There's
grace none of us have achieved perfection in every part of our spiritual lives. I don't know
about you, but I can't afford not to tithe. I need it. I need God's help in my life. He blesses
me when all my priorities line up with his Word. There is a great blessing in obedience. It's
about our hearts, not conformity to any written law. I ask you to give like Abraham give
your tithe out of a spirit of grateful worship to God. When you do that, you invest in your
local church and all we do to love our neighbors. We depend on your tithes to operate on a
month to month basis, and we pinch pennies. None of us on staff, including me, make more
than $16 per hour.
If you have not already done this, then over the next two weeks, I'd like you to think
and pray and talk to God (and your mate) about your financial commitment for the year
2008 to our church. [hold up card] We ask you to give us a written estimate of your giving
for 2008 not as a pledge, not as a legally binding commitment, but so we can better plan our
spending. If this is your church home, we ask you to please look at your budget, and give us
your written estimate in two weeks, Thanksgiving Sunday. Let's pray.
3