Principles of Stewardship
1. The church should do everything first class. No more throwing
things together - no more getting the cheapest possible job done - no
more mediocrity. What we do represents the Kingdom of God. Now I
will not go after the most expensive, and I won’t incur unnecessary
expenses or undertake unnecessary projects. I’ll keep the priorities
on ministry, not on show. But I want things done right and done well
and there is no reason for us to settle for anything less. The church
has been too long just getting by with mediocrity.
We need to dream big, and go all out for what will be effective for
the Kingdom of God.
2. The second part is, I won’t just into any of these things until I
have the cash in hand to cover it. That’s not a lack of faith. On
the contrary. We are going to go by faith into areas we have not gone
into yet. But there is a subtle manipulation and presumption that can
creep in by jumping into projects and then trying to force God or His
people to support them.
I think if we believe in a project we will support it ahead of time.
The church is moving forward, not backward.
But it takes commitment to go forward. If you are 1/2 hearted, you
won’t make it.
Secondly, in order to move forward, it takes faithfulness in giving.
That is the main focus of teaching tonight. Much of what I want to
say has been said before, but it needs to be repeated periodically to
remind those who have heard and to inform those who have not.
1. Tithing is God’s plan for the support of the work of the ministry.
In the OT, the priests were supported by God’s people. The Temple
was built by donated labor and finances. It was not a matter of,
“Should I get involved?” It was a matter of, “What do you want me to
do?” It was not optional; it was required. To withhold from God was
unthinkable.
2. Tithing began when Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedek, the priest.
That was long before the Levitical Law came into being.
Later, in the law, it is stated, “The tithe is the Lord’s.”
Listen, God is not in the charity line. The tithe is not a handout,
or even a gift. The tithe is an obligation - a bill. Do you pay your
bills?
Do you think God won’t repossess? Read Malachi 3!
Malachi 3
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein
have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this
whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Malachi 3
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in
your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
If you pay your tithes, He will rebuke the devourer - the pestilence
and the failed increase.
What is devouring your finances? If you tithe, you can rebuke that
thing and stop the robbery of your goods.
Again, look at Haggai.
Haggai 1
5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not
enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you,
but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages
to put it into a bag with holes.
7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I
will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye
brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts.
Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his
own house.
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth
is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon
that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle,
and upon all the labour of the hands.
God wasted their money, sabotaged their crops, limited their resources,
and withheld the rain because the people were not faithful to His
house.
Hear me now! When you pay your tithes, you are not giving to me. You
are not giving to New Life Assembly. You are giving to God.
What is more important, God’s work going forward, or our own
extravagant desires being filled?
3. People tell me they can’t afford to tithe.
My friends, I was tithing when my church was paying me $25 - $50 a
week, and we supported our ministry working at McDonalds and selling
Avon door to door. We tithed when I was between churches and worked
for Temporary services.
I had a friend who continued to tithe when his business went bankrupt.
And do you know something, neither of us ever went hungry or homeless.
You cannot afford not to tithe. If I did not give God His 10%, I
could never survive on the 100%.
Now, most of you know I have had my share of setbacks this year - my
car broke down - the new one had an A/C problem that cost me $1500
(and it broke down 3 times), and then something else went wrong. My
$6000 used car cost me $8000 before it was all over. The devil was
trying to frustrate me, steal from me, and distract me. But guess
what - it didn’t work.
Here’s what God was doing -
The ministerial group took up a $1300 offering for me, and my
daughter got $20,000 worth of college scholarships. I figure I came
out ahead. God is faithful.
Let me say it again plainly, The tithe is the Lord’s. (Lev 27:30)
Tithe literally means 1/10 or 10%.
My pastor used to say, “The tithe is your rent for living on earth.”
John Wesley said, “Make all you can, save all you can, and give all
you can.”
4. Tithing is not just an OT matter.
The tithe, as we said, was instituted long before the law.
Jesus encouraged tithing. He credited the Pharisees for it.
(And believe me, He didn’t credit them with much.)
Jesus said, ”Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and give God what
is God’s.”
And even if tithing were just law, the law was to be fulfilled, not
abolished.
5. The tithe is the first portion.
Proverbs 3: 9 Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the
firstfruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Leviticus 23: 10 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them:
`When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its
harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you har vest.
God always gets his share first.
The first is the best, the cream of the crop.
The firstborn of men and animals were dedicated to God. God required
the best, not the leftovers or rejects.
Malachi 1
6. "A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a
father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the
respect due to me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who
show contempt for my name. "But you ask, `How have we shown contempt
for your name?'
7 "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, `How have we
defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible.
8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?
When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?
Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?
Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.
9 "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from
your hands, will he accept you?" --says the LORD Almighty.
6. The tithe goes into the storehouse.
Now here is an important point. I know people who give their tithes
to the poor - or to the sick - or they designate their tithe for
missions or special projects - or they buy something for the church
with it.
Please listen to me - that is not a tithe. When you designate it -
when you decide how it is to be spent, it no longer is a tithe,
because the tithe is a sacrifice to God. You don’t sacrifice
something to God and then consume it yourself. Do you understand
what I am saying?
Imagine a Jewish father saying to his family, “We are going to
sacrifice the fatted calf to God this afternoon, and then tonight
we’re going to have a steak dinner to celebrate God’s goodness to us.”
What a farce!
Do you know what you do when you designate your tithe? You are saying,
“Now God, here is your money and here’s what I want you to do with it.”
It’s like we’re giving God His allowance and telling Him how to spend
it.
Just who is in charge here? That is the issue. When you decide to
pay your tithe, you’ve already missed the point. There is no deciding
about it - you must pay your tithe. God didn’t ask you for it - He
billed you. The bill is written there in Lev. 27:30.
I respect the teachings of Larry Burkett, but on this point I strongly
disagree with him. He says you can give your tithes to the needy.
That’s not what Jesus said.
When one of the disciples was upset about the expensive perfume that
was wasted on Jesus ‘because it could have been sold and the money
given to the poor’, Jesus said, “The poor you have with you always,
but this was done to honor me.”
Now Jesus helped the poor, and He expects His people to, but the first
priority is to honor and obey God in all things.
The truth is, whatever controls your purse controls you.
The tithe is the Lord’s and the tithe goes to the storehouse. And
what is the storehouse? It is the local church!
But, what about other ministries that you get fed from? Send them an
offering if you must, but never your tithes. (Sometimes I wonder if
some of these ‘ministries’ are just misguided individuals draining
finances from the local churches.)
The local church is like a grocery store. Other ministries are
fast-food restaurants. You get temporary satisfaction and a bunch of
calories, but they won’t sustain you like the church does.
7. Offerings.
You have not really given until you go beyond tithing. The tithe is
an obligation. Offerings are freewill gifts beyond and above the
tithe.
A missionary friend, Wayne Myers, used to say, “The tithe is to teach
the kids how to give.”
Closing: There is much more to say, later, but let me close with this -
The Bible talks more about stewardship than any other subject. Life
is stewardship - overseeing that which is not yours till the owner
comes to claim it. Christian life, in particular, is stewardship -
what you do with what you have been given.
20% of the NT talks about the stewardship of your money.
19 parables address the issue of stewardship.
Apparently, the subject is important to God.
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