In the most definite way, the Lord has directed me toward the message for this morning. The deliverer of this message was impressed on me more than two weeks ago, and I feel it so urgently in my spirit that I have decided to interrupt the series on the new you for just today. Last week we had a guest speaker, and the next two weeks we will be at our missions festival, so it seems that this would be an appropriate time.
I earnestly desire that you will receive this message in the same spirit and with the heart in which it is given to you. For a long time now, I have struggled with the Lord over an issue related to our church, and God has clearly shown me that the issue that I have wrestled with is partly rooted in my own failure, a failure to teach you the whole counsel of God in a crucial area of discipleship and Christian growth.
This failure reflects a defect in my understanding of biblical teaching in recent years. Over a decade ago now, I came under the convincing influence of a Bible expositor who became a friend of mine and sort of a model to me. His teaching in this matter, which I am going to talk about today, swayed me to modify a doctrine which earlier in my ministry had been settled as an issue for me.
Thus my prior convictions were changed and my preaching was muted with regard to this vital teaching, one that is especially critical, I think, in this day and culture. My change of thinking did not alter my own practice, however, with regard to this matter I am addressing. Our family continued doing what it had always done, but my change of thinking did impact this church when its foundation was laid ten years ago. And unfortunately, it also played into some very powerful trends in our culture.
The result of that, I fear, has been measurable and visible. And so I am today publicly repenting. The word repentance means a change of mind, and I have changed my mind. And today I want to lay before you with God's help what earlier in my ministry had been understood but which I then later forsook. In forsaking it, I feel that I have failed the Lord as well as you by not adhering to a biblical principle.
My prior change a few years ago was sincere, but I believe it nonetheless missed the mark of being biblically on target. The doctrine which I fail to articulate fully is that regarding how God has ordered His work in the world to be financially supported. While here at Grace Church over the last ten years, I have written and taught about what I have termed and others have termed grace giving. The terminology, by the way, which I very much like and still adhere to.
For our giving to God, you see, is an answer to His abundance of grace toward us, and is also an expression of His grace active in our lives. Grace giving is a good term, and I would not wish to discard it. But it has been gutted of a central biblical principle as we and some others have abused it. We have extracted from the term grace giving the key biblical principle of tithing, which means giving to God 10% of our increase.
I have come to see that tithing is not, indeed, contrary to God's grace, but rather it is an evidence of God's grace in the life of God's child. Note that I did not call tithing a regulation or an ordinance. Tithing is not a law that we keep as part of our covenant with God, as was true with ancient Israel under the law of Moses. Indeed, if you recall under their covenant with God, the Israelites were commanded to give not one tithe, but three.
Two of those tithes were annual tithes, and another was given every third year, which makes an average of 23% annually, which God required of His people. The tithing as an expression of worship existed before the law of Moses. Tithing is recorded, for example, in Genesis 14, when Abraham, or Abram as he was called then, presented a tithe to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and that was over 400 years before the law of Moses was given. His grandson Jacob also promised a tithe to God in Genesis 28.
I have changed my mind and have come back to the place where I began in my ministry in seeing tithing as a principle of biblical stewardship. It predated the law by hundreds of years, and I believe still exists as a principle after the law. It certainly was included in the Mosaic law, but it was not initiated by it. Tithing is a principle that appears to be universal and timeless in its application.
The fact is that God does honor those who tithe their income, and I believe that it can be substantiated that He does also withhold blessing from those who do not tithe. I would like you to open your Bible with me to a central passage on tithing, which is found in the book of Malachi, the third chapter.
Now if you are among those who hate to begin looking for Malachi among all those little books of the minor prophets, just go to Matthew and put it in reverse, and you will quickly come to Malachi. I am going to begin reading in verse 7. God is laying before the people of Israel here an indictment of their rebellion and their sin against Him under their covenant.
And as part of this broader indictment He says to them, From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Here's God's response. All a man robbed God, yet you are robbing Me. But you say, How have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings? You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows, then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes, says the Lord of hosts.
And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. Now as I talk about this subject today, I can almost hear some skeptics say, This must be surely a foxhole conversion. The church needs money, and the pastor is changing his mind because of it. I will acknowledge to you that God has used the accumulated pressure that I have felt for nearly eleven years of financial stress in this ministry to get my attention. God has used that.
I have wondered, and at times struggled with the question, as to why we have fairly consistently been throttled back in our vision and ministry by financial shortfall. And to be candid, the Lord has showed me through this period some important things, including the fact that financial abundance does not always signify the Lord's presence or blessing, nor does shortfall always signal his discipline and displeasure.
But God has impressed upon me that he has, in fact, placed the resources needed for our full ministry within our church. The persistent shortfall is not because God has failed to provide what has been needed. God has provided it. Rather, the problem is that some of the resources which he has provided have been misused and misspent by those to whom God has given them. They have been wasted on satisfying personal desires rather than being used for what God had intended.
Some are savoring pleasures and luxuries pressed upon them by a materialistic culture, while the work of God languishes and faces decline. They waste God's funds on unneeded gadgets and toys, pleasures and possessions. Indeed, it may well be that God has in fact provided an abundance for the ministry of our church, but that that abundance has funded not the work of God but our own personal ambitions and pleasures. And God has convicted me.
A part of the responsibility for this is mine, for not instructing more carefully in the principles of stewardship, and particularly the central piece of it, the one of tithing. The Bible has a lot to say about our money. We sometimes take that personally, believing that that is my business. But as we are going to see in a few moments, it is not in fact our business. God has a lot to say about money because what we have in our bank accounts is His and not ours.
Over 700 times in the Bible, God refers directly to our money. Over 700 times. And 2,200 additional times, God indirectly talks to us regarding our money. Money is a real issue, and God deals with real issues. Among the principles that we find in the Word of God related to stewardship are these. Number one, all that we have is the Lord's, all of it. We own or possess nothing of our own. It is all His and He has chosen to loan it to us for our use in this life.
We came to the world with nothing in our hands, and as someone pointed out rather graphically to me a few weeks ago, He has never yet seen a hearse with a U-Haul in the back of it. We leave it all here. It is committed into our hands for our lifetime to use, but we do not possess it. Some see what is given to the Church as the Lord's money. But in fact, the truth is that all of it is the Lord's money.
Whether I give it to the Lord's work, or I use it to buy groceries, or to pay my utilities, or to purchase some unnecessary indulgence, it is all the Lord's. Most of us would immediately respond, well, I believe that. Yet the failure in stewardship is evidence that many of us do not really believe that, because if we don't act upon what we say we believe, we don't really believe it. The facts say that most of us think that what we have is ours.
Let's suppose that I gave you my checkbook, and I said that you have the power to write checks on my account, and I want you to give away my money. I want you to pay my bills, and then I want you to give away the rest of it. Would you find that hard to do? It might be harder than you think. Most of us wouldn't find it very hard to give away somebody else's money, would we? Then why do we find it so hard to give away what is God's?
It's because our perspective is that it isn't really God's, it's mine. But one of the basic principles of stewardship in the Bible is that all we have is the Lord's. The second principle is that regular giving of 10% of our gross income, or a tithe, signifies our realization of God's ultimate ownership of everything. That 10% represents the whole of the increase as belonging to God.
The owner has a right to tell us how to allocate what is his, he has a right to tell us what to do with it, and God says, you bring 10% of your income, signifying that you understand all of its mine. The principle of the tithe, you see, is a God-planned reminder of the basic principle of God's ownership. But someone argues, my motive may not be right for doing that, and so if my motive isn't right I might as well not give it all.
To put it a different way, that says, I don't feel like giving my tithe to God. I don't feel like it. But should our actions be dependent upon our feelings, or by what we know is obedience? There really is no excuse for not doing what we know is right. This will finally catch up with us. It is better to do what is right with wrong motives, if that be the case, than not to do what is right at all.
The deeper issue is the root of that wrong motive, which is often a failure to realize that the money is God's anyway, and we are simply giving the Lord what is His and not ours. James says, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, it is what? It's sin. If you were driving down the street and you saw a member of our church coming out of an X-rated theater, do you think you would have a responsibility to stop and say something?
Or later to call that friend of yours in the church and say, my friend, I want to ask you about something? Of course you would, because your friend is struggling with sin. Or if you knew that there was abuse going on in a home of a wife or of children, would you have a responsibility to intervene, to say something, to try to bring help to that situation? Of course you would, because it's sin what's happening in that home. Likewise, when we are not giving to God, that is sin.
And we need to help each other in overcoming sin. Regular giving of 10% of our gross income signifies that we truly understand God's ultimate ownership of everything. A third principle is that the Lord's tithe is to be brought to the storehouse. I'm really convinced of this. We see the storehouse mentioned here in our text in Malachi chapter 3, and it certainly is Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the temple building itself was the storehouse.
Today I believe that the principle applies to the local church. I believe the word storehouse in Malachi chapter 3 is equivalent to what the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 16, 2, upon the first day of the week, that every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him. Now whether that amount was kept in the church's bank account or was kept in the individual's home or bank account isn't the issue.
The issue is that the amount was God's and it was for his work to be used in the context of that body of believers. The fact that life was much less complex and ministry less institutional in those days, I don't think changes the principle that's involved. I'm convinced that it is a sound principle that the foundational gift of the tithe is intended by the Lord for the work of God's people in their local church.
Offerings then, whatever is above that tithe, can also be brought or given in other ways for the work of the Lord and in gratitude to him. Proportional giving is not limited to 10 percent. Certainly some can give much more because their increase is much more, but tithing, I believe, is God's place for us to start. It is a bad place to start. It's a good place to start.
Someone has said, well we ought to give till it hurts, but the fact is we shouldn't give till it hurts, but till it feels good, till it feels good. The principle that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians is as God has prospered you, as God has prospered you. The point is that additional giving beyond the tithe is certainly proper and encouraged by the apostle. Some or most of us perhaps have other concerns.
Our missionary friends who are worthy of our financial investment, to use the tithe for that is improper. To use offerings above the tithe for that is certainly proper. Principle number three is that the Lord's tithe is to be brought to the storehouse for use of the local body of believers in the collective corporate ministry that they're involved in.
Principle number four is that failure to give the tithe, I believe, results in God sending the devourer so that in the end we lose the tithe anyway. If you look closely at Malachi chapter 3 you find that God says, bring the tithe and then I will rebuke the devourer. God which has caused your fields, your fruit to be lost. Warren Worsby writes, when we rob God we only rob ourselves. We cannot keep anything that rightfully belongs to God.
Another way of saying this, and I heard someone say this a couple of weeks ago, tithing is free. Tithing doesn't really cost you or me anything because when we give the tithe, we're obeying God, God uses it. When we withhold the tithe, God gets it anyway. It may be unexpected repair bills, it may be a health problem, it may be this, it may be that, but God will extract from us that tithe in discipline. But on the other hand of the equation tithing has wonderful positive benefits.
We see here that it brings God's blessing. God says bring the tithe, prove me, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing that you cannot contain. Can we trust God for that? Furthermore he tells us in verse 12, all the nations will call you blessed. The result of being faithful in this principle in Israel at least was that the other nations around them would see the blessing of God and God would be glorified. Is that principle still true today?
I believe it is. When the work of God languishes, it is just the opposite. When the work of God prospers, God is glorified in that. Another positive benefit of tithing is that it creates personal joy. It creates personal joy in the heart of the one who gives. Charles Swindoll writes, for far too long God's people have been shamed and whipped into giving, guilt and manipulative techniques are commonly used to wrench money from pockets and purses. People give, but not hilariously. How tragic!
God highly prizes those who give with joy in their hearts. If ever our faces should light up and our hearts should beat faster with delight, it should occur when we give. Joy and generosity are like Siamese twins inseparably linked together. It concerns me quite frankly that stewardship is usually viewed as a grim obligation and we frown our way through it, forcing ourselves to obey, we squeeze a nickel or two while old Thomas Jefferson yells, surely this is alien to God's preference.
Then he asks the question, how can we bring back the joy? He suggests four ways. Number one, reflect on God's gifts to you. Number two, remind yourself of his promises regarding generosity. Third, examine your heart. Open that vault, he says, and ask hard questions like, is my giving proportionate to my income? Am I motivated by guilt or by joy? If someone else knew the level of my financial involvement in God's work, would I be an encouragement for their generosity?
Have I prayed about my giving or am I just an impulsive responder? Finally he says, trust God to honor consistent generosity. One of the benefits of tithing is that it creates a deep personal joy knowing that one is doing what pleases God. Thirdly, it makes us wise. It makes us wise when we tithe. So where do you get that? In Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 23, God tells his people to bring one of their tithes and he says that one of the reasons is that they might learn to fear the Lord.
They might learn to fear the Lord. Tithing teaches us a proper reverence or the fear of the Lord. The Bible says that the fear or the reverence of the Lord is the beginning of what? The beginning of wisdom. When we honor God with the tithe, God gives to us wisdom. I believe that includes in knowing how best to use what is left over. Finally, it has the positive benefit of advancing the work of God. To be honest with you, our church's ministry is in a holding pattern.
And I would say to some degree its future ministry is uncertain and clouded because there are many of us that have not been physically responsible as stewards of God's resources. So how do you know that? Because of a study that we've done on the giving patterns of our church. It's an anonymous study, names are not connected with it, but I think you would be rather shocked at what it exposes about the giving patterns of Grace Church Roseville.
It's not you see that God has gone bankrupt, but what he has provided has too often been rerouted for personal benefit rather than the work of the kingdom. And so today I am repenting. I am changing my mind. I am repenting of my part in all of this. I am repenting of my failure to accurately teach to you this principle of tithing. And I am asking you to do the same if need be, to change your mind about your stewardship pattern.
And let us together join ourselves in a covenant of faithfulness as the stewards of God's resources. Let's determine to practice the principles of God, all of them, knowing that as we do so we can expect God to faithfully keep his promises. But how can one begin to do this? The answer is very simple. By figuring what my amount of salary or income is for a month, or for whatever pay period you're dealing with, dividing it by ten and giving that amount.
For some people that would cause heart failure. For some people that would be a shocking point to come to in life. It would even be a kiddish barnea, an experience where obedience will be put to the test. It may well be a moment of truth. If you absolutely feel though that you are in an impossible situation to begin obeying God with a tithe, then what you first need to do is to immediately seek financial counsel from a godly person. To find out what you can do to bring your house in order.
You and I will rob ourselves of future blessings if we don't take steps to implement the principle of God's tithe. Now believe me, I'm under no illusions that my change of mind, my repentance, or that this one message on a subject that some find very uncomfortable, can change a single attitude or correct a single lifestyle, or improve the giving pattern of anybody who's here. That is not my work. That is not my calling to do that. Only God can change the thinking of any of us.
Only God can transform the motives of any of us. Only God can convict us and make us willing to do his good pleasure. So I'm very relaxed about the result of this. But at least this morning before God and before you I have cleared my conscience. The response of anyone will be their own responsibility to God. I know that many of you do and have practiced tithing for many years.
Some of you have shared with me personal accounts of God's blessings because of your obedience to this principle of tithing. And I believe that it would encourage others in our church if you would be willing to share your experience with them in writing. It may not have to be with your name attached to it. But if you would be willing to share in a few words the experience of joy in your life because of practicing this principle, I would invite you to write that out and send it to me.
And we'll be able to use perhaps some of those in the future. To be very honest with you, in the 20 years or more now of ministry that I've been involved in, I have not met one faithful tither who has any testimony other than personal joy in God's faithfulness. There's not an exception to that in 20 years. Paul MacArthur has an interesting perspective on this when he writes, God made the sun and it gives. God made the moon and it gives. God made the stars and they give.
God made the air, it gives. God made the clouds, they give. God made the earth, it gives. God made the sea, it gives. God made the trees, they give. God made the flowers, they give. God made the beasts, and they give. God made man, does he give? I wonder this morning if you would be willing to acknowledge before God what your practice is. Nobody does know it anyway, doesn't he? Whether you are presently or not presently following the principle of the tithe, acknowledge before God where you are.
And if you dare to trust God, if you dare to step out beyond the Catech Barnea that you're at, I invite you to trust God to begin practicing this principle in your life. You say, well, what's my motive for doing that? There's only one, there's only one, the love of God. Someone has said you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Would you pray with me, please?
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed as we bring to a close this service, as I have shared with you from my heart my repentance before God and before you. I wonder if God the Holy Spirit is saying to you within your heart, it's time to change your mind too. It's time to change your ways. It's time to change your pattern. What would you say to him? Would you tell him that you would? Would you obey him? Dear friend, don't call him Lord if you put him off.
Lord Jesus, I pray today that we will understand how to apply this principle in our own personal stewardship. And I pray that not a person nor a family will leave here without beginning to deal with this, this important issue. I pray that we may enjoy all the wonderful benefits that come from obedience to this principle. I pray that we may be delivered from the devourer. May the result of it be that your name may be blessed in all the earth.
Look where you are, would you talk to the Lord right now in the quietness of your heart and respond to him? Unless there will be someone here today who thinks that what I have talked about is how one becomes a Christian, let me say to you, dear friend, that what I have talked about today is for the child of God. It is for someone who has already been born into God's family.
If you are not a Christian, if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, what we have talked about today is not the most important issue in your life at all. The issue for you is have you trusted Christ? Will you trust him? Will you do it today? Understanding that he suffered for your sins and died for you and rose again, that he might save you from hell, from condemnation. Will you today trust in him?
I remind all of us that Jesus gave his life for us and he asks us, what have you given for me? Will you stand with me please and let's sing 436, just a verse or so before we go. These words of Francis Havergl, I gave my life for thee, my precious blood I shed that thou might'st ransomed to be and quickened from the dead. I gave what hast thou given for me. Let's sing it together. motherfucker...