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"Treasure that will Last"
December 5, 2005
by The Rev. Clancy Nixon
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, VA
www.holyspiritdulles.org.
The story goes of the black Baptist preacher who was preaching in the call-and-response
style to his congregation about giving to the church. The Preacher sang out, "Before this
church can walk, it's got to crawl!" The people responded, "Let it crawl, Rev, let it
crawl!" Then the preacher chanted, "Before this church can run, it's got to walk!" The
people sang out, "Let it walk, Rev, let it walk!" The preacher thought he clinched it
when he said, "Before this church can fly, it's got to give the full tithe!" But the people
replied, "Let it crawl, Rev, let it crawl."
Some people cringe when the preacher talks about money, but Jesus was never bashful
about this subject. Indeed, he talked more about money than he did about heaven. Why
was that? I think it's because Jesus knew that how we think and act about money will
show us a great deal about what we really believe about everything else.
1. Examine your Heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that giving to God is
a matter of the Heart. He says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
(Matt. 6:21) Jesus' statement assumes that we can be under a misapprehension about
where our hearts really are. We can think that we put the Lord first in our lives; we can
say that we do; but that does not make it so. What really matters is what we do. Jesus
says, look at your treasure. That will tell you where your hearts really are. What does
Jesus mean when he talks about our treasure? I think he means what we value the most.
The problem is, we can value many things I value my family, my job, my country, my
church, my friends, and more. How do we know for sure what we value the most?
I want to suggest that two treasures that all of us possess are our time and our money. If
we really ruthlessly examine how we spend our time and our money, we will discover
what is really most important to us. For example, consider what might seem a second
order question: not how much do you give, but which check do you write first every
month? When times are tight, which payee are you most keen to ensure that you pay on
time? Think about the answer to that question. Got it? My guess is, it is likely one of two
things: your tithe or your mortgage. The answer to that question will tell you something
about where your treasure is.
Roger Eanes has said that an excellent spiritual barometer for him is how he is doing in
keeping up with his tithe. I agree that it is a good heart monitor. I confess to you that I fell
behind in my own tithe for a few months this summer. Please forgive me. It was not
deliberate, it was neglect. I was also late on my mortgage! I was not paying attention to
my obligations because I was distracted by other things. Since October, the Nixon's have
been up to date. I'm looking into an automatic payment plan for our church so I don't
even have to think about it.
Jesus' counsel to us is to lay up treasures in heaven, not the kind where thieves can steal
or moths can eat. These heavenly treasures are the good deeds we do for others. Money
comes and goes, but acts of love are eternal. Jesus teaches that we will be rewarded in
heaven for acts of mercy, like giving to our Benevolence Fund beyond your tithe or
befriending your neighbor in your cul-de-sac who really needs a friend.
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says: "You cannot serve both God and money [or Mammon.]"
Money is very powerful in its ability to lure people away from God and into idolatry.
Like God, money wants to master you, and if you have two masters, you will never find
peace. Money will compete with God for your affections until you get God's perspective
on it. Before I committed to the tithe, I was a battleground in that war between God and
Mammon. I used to stress about how much to give every week, because I had not yet
made a decision to tithe. I had a consumer mentality to giving: if I liked the sermon that
week, or if I was feeling generous, maybe I'd put $20 or $40 in the collection plate
instead of my usual $10. was tipping God, not tithing. To get victory over the power of
money, you need to come to a settled conviction that God is more important to you than
money. The way you get there, [listen!] the way you break the power of money in your
life, is by giving it away. If you are willing to give it away God's way, it no longer has
power over you.
2. Tithing starts by putting God first. Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor the Lord with your
wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to
overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine." The Bible says the first tenth
of your increase belongs to God in a special way; it is holy. It is to be set aside for him
and not used for common purposes. It's not what is left over; it is to be the first fruits, the
first and best check you write. Malachi 3:8 says, if you keep any part of the tithe for
yourself, you are robbing God. Good place to be NOT!
When God's word says to tithe, God is not saying to give him 10% of what we have. It's
not ours to begin with, it's God's. God is generous; God lets us keep 90% of what is His
anyway! The Bible says, all of it belongs to God. From God's perspective, we don't
really own anything ourselves, we are only stewards, who are looking after the assets of
the master until He returns. Amen? In Advent, we're reminded that Jesus is coming
soon. When Jesus comes again, money will be irrelevant. Since Jesus is Lord, there is to
be no area of our lives that is not under His Lordship, including our wallets, our
checkbooks, and our budget. Let me ask you this: Is your wallet baptized? Have you
dedicated it to the Lord? Let's say this verse together from Deuteronomy 14:23: "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.
3. Use the 10-10-80 Plan. Here is my advice for you: 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 that, and you'll have few financial problems
in life. Give 10%, save 10%, and live on the rest. When Jesus says not to store up
treasure on earth, he does not mean that you shouldn't save money. There is plenty of
biblical teaching on the benefits of saving. He means money should not be your first
priority or it becomes an idol. 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. And you bring your tithe to the
storehouse, Malachi says, which means to the local church, not your favorite TV
preachers or missionaries--that's what offerings are for. An offering is anything you give
over and above your tithe.
4. 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 only what you can give
cheerfully. The way you 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.
I once sat with a man- call him Bob- who shared how he always resented church. When
he was a child, his family had given to a building fund, and they had given up a summer
vacation for that year. His parents had not consulted him on that decision. Bob still held
on to resentment twenty years later not resenting his parents, resenting the church that
he thought had taken his vacation away! Bob was tipping God, not anywhere near
tithing. Friends, if you've ever resented a gift you or your family has made, go back,
look at it again, to be sure you have forgiven yourself and the recipient. Review it all in
light of God's word. Resentment is poisonous. Forgive, and forgive again. If necessary,
communicate your pain, seek counsel and forgiveness. Bob needed both to forgive and to
do some deep work to understand that his childhood pleasure ought not to be the locus of
all justice in the universe. Listen: After you have received healing for those resentments,
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! The same
principles apply to service in the church. If you are resenting your service, please ask to
be released. You are released.
Another strategy to get to 10% is the Nike strategy just do it! When I first got serious
about giving, I started on the proportional plan. It took us 3 years to get there. After
raising our giving from 2% to 4%, one day Ginger and I understood that the full tithe was
a matter of obedience. When we did, we just bit the bullet, and went to 10% all at once.
We finally understood that it was a Lordship issue, an obedience issue. Was Jesus the
Lord of our checkbook? We had to say "not yet"- once we realized this, it became much
easier to do. We had to cut out some major expenses. If you go to the Nike strategy, just
be sure to budget for it. I know some people teach that if you just start tithing, God will
provide for you with unexpected checks in the mail, bequests, and that kind of thing.
God can do that; God has done that for many people; but I think that it is presumptuous
to expect God to increase your income when you give to Him. What we need to increase
is the size of our hearts more than our income. Plan your tithe, and plan your spending.
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. It's more about our
hearts than it is about our wallets anyway. Jim Eliot was a missionary martyr who was
killed in Ecuador. He said this, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain
what he cannot lose." Eliot's heart was to reach the lost at any cost. He gave all his
money to that cause, and all his time. Eventually, it cost him his life. Unlike cars or
clothes, people's souls last forever. Jesus says, store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven. I ask you: give what you can't keep to gain what you can't lose: give your
money to gain the kingdom for others. Invest in your church, and we will reach the lost
of Loudoun County with the love of Christ. That is our primary calling. Before they
came to us, over one third of the people who have been in this congregation did not have
Jesus as the Lord of their lives.
If you have not already done this, this week, I'd like you to think and pray and talk to
God and your mate about your financial commitment for the year 2005 to our church. We
ask you to pledge so we can plan our spending. If this is your church home, please look
at your budget this week, and give us your pledge commitment by next week.
Let's pray: "Lord Jesus, I don't understand it all, but I need Your help in every area of my
life, especially my finances. Christ, I ask You as best as I know how to come into my life
and fill me with Your power and Your peace and Your presence. Be the manager, the
Lord of all my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Be the Lord of my
finances. Thank You for loving me. Amen."