Givers and Takers

SERMON TOPIC: Givers and Takers

Speaker: Ken Paynter

Language: ENGLISH

Date: 16 December 2018

Topic Groups: TITHING, FINANCES, NEW COVENANT

Sermon synopsis: Tithes pre-dated the Law.

Genesis 14:18-20. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Genesis 28:20-22 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.

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Givers and Takers.

Two Kinds of People.

There are two kinds of people on earth today, Just two kinds of people, no more, I say, Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears. Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s busy span Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man. No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Two Kinds of People.

Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses Are ever divided in just these two classes. And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I wean, There is only one lifter for twenty who lean.

This one question I ask. Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? Or are you a leaner who lets others bear Your portion of worry and labour and care?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Tithing (Zondervan article)

Zondervan article this week

Before or after taxes?

How many of us have said or heard those words in response to the exhortation to give a portion of our income back to God?

Our concern with such legalities illustrates our need to remind ourselves of the true purpose of giving. The Old Testament standard for giving was the tithe, or ten percent of any property or produce:

Leviticus 27:30.

A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

Tithing (Zondervan article)

This gift was a response of thanksgiving and an expression of allegiance to God. Failure to observe the tithe was viewed as robbing God, for it belonged to him (see Malachi 3:8-9).

The New Testament assumed that God’s people would give proportionally from their income. Paul urged the Corinthian Christians to set aside a certain amount of money on the Lord’s Day, depending on how much they had earned. This would then be given to other Christians enduring hardship in Jerusalem.

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 1 Corinthians 16:2.

Tithing (Zondervan article)

Paul’s instructions provide us with a good model for giving today. We should give as God has blessed us.

We should set aside money regularly and purposefully.

This habit of regular, proportional giving will remind us of several things:

(1) that God graciously provides for us; (2) that we are responsible to support others; (3) that we need to use our material treasure to secure spiritual gains. God’s grace is such that when we give him what is his, he gives generously to us.

Tithing (Zondervan article)

Malachi 3:10. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it”

While this is not an automatic guarantee that we will receive material blessings every time we give to God, this verse does show us that God will bless us and provide for our needs. Note that the Bible doesn’t teach us to give in order to get. The Bible says that we get in order to give. This reverse perspective makes all the difference. God blesses us so that we can give to others. Instead of trying to manipulate God to nurture our selfish expectations, our giving should come as a response to God’s blessing upon us.

Tithes pre-dated the Law.

Genesis 14:18-20.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Genesis 28:20-22

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.

God is the owner and we are the stewards.

Everything belongs to God and even our ability to generate income comes from Him.

1 Chronicles 29:13-14.

And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?

For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

Deuteronomy 8:17-18.

Beware lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Four important principles about stewardship.

The principle of ownership.

Psalm 24:1.

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

In the beginning of Genesis, God creates everything and puts Adam in the Garden to work it and to take care of it. This is the fundamental principle of biblical stewardship. God owns everything, we are simply managers or administrators acting on his behalf.

Stewardship is the commitment of one’s self and possessions to God’s service, recognizing that we do not have the right of control over our property or ourselves.

The principle of ownership.

Psalm 50:8-12.

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields

are mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Four important principles about stewardship.

2. The principle of responsibility.

Although God gives us“all things richly to enjoy,” nothing is ours.

Nothing really belongs to us. God owns everything; we’re responsible for how we treat it and what we do with it.

While we complain about our rights here on earth, the Bible constantly asks, What about your responsibilities?

Owners have rights; stewards have responsibilities.

We are called as God’s stewards to manage that which belongs to God. While God has graciously entrusted us with the care, development, and enjoyment of everything he owns as his stewards, we are responsible to manage his holdings well and according to his desires and purposes.

Four important principles about stewardship.

3. The principle of accountability.

A steward is one who manages the possessions of another. We are all stewards of the resources, abilities and opportunities that God has entrusted to our care, and one day each one of us will be called to give an account for how we have managed what the Master has given us.

Like the servants in the Parable of the Talents, we will be called to give an account of how we have administered everything we have been given, including our time, money, abilities, information, wisdom, relationships, and authority.

We will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we managed the things he has entrusted to us.

Four important principles about stewardship.

4. The principle of reward.

Colossians 3:23-24.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

The Bible shows us in the parables of the Kingdom that faithful stewards who do the master’s will with the master’s resources can expect to be rewarded incompletely in this life, but fully in the next.

Matthew 25:21:

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

4. The principle of reward.

Matthew 19:27-30

Peter answered him, We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?

Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

God owes us nothing.

Job 41:11.

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

God doesn’t even owe us an explanation and He doesn’t owe us a thank you.

Luke 17:7-10.

Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now and sit down to eat?

Won’t he rather say, Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink?

Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.

Let us look at what God has given.

He gave up His Glory.

John 17:4-5.

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Hebrews 2:9.

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Let us look at what God has given.

He gave up His divine power and knowledge as part of the God-head.

John 5:19. Jesus gave them this answer: Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

Matthew 4:1-3. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

Let us look at what God has given.

He gave up His divine power and knowledge as part of the God-head.

Matthew 26;53-54.

Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled....

Mark 13:32.

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

D. He gave up His reputation.

Philippians 2:7.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

1 Peter2:20

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

D. He gave up His reputation.

Born in a stable.

Brought up in Nazareth.

Called a child of fornication.

Accused of been a Samaritan and demon-possessed.

Called Beelzebub the prince of demons.

Called a glutton and a wine bibber.

Called a law-breaker.

E. He gave up basic needs for the sake of ministry.

Matthew 8:18-20.

When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Jesus replied, Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

F. He gave up His life on the cross.

John 10:17.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God still continues to give to us on a daily basis.

Romans 8:32.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

“Give us this day our daily bread” We pray but we are blessed far beyond this as He cares for us in so many ways.

Are you giving?

Matthew 25:44-45. They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.

Matthew 5:42. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7. The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Are you giving?

Luke 14:12-14.

He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.

For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Ephesians 4:28.

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Giving.

Hebrews 13:16.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Acts 20:35.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Proverbs 11:24.

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

Are you giving?

Philippians 4:14-18. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Are you giving?

II Corinthians 8v1-7. (Macedonians)

They gave not only what they could afford but far more; and I can testify that they did it because they wanted to and not because of nagging on my part.

They begged us to take the money so they could share in the joy of helping the Christians in Jerusalem. Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us, for whatever directions God might give to them through us.

They were so enthusiastic about it that we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to visit you and encourage you to complete your share in this ministry of giving.

You people there are leaders in so many ways you have so much faith, so many good preachers, so much learning, so much enthusiasm, so much love for us. Now I want you to be leaders also in the spirit of cheerful giving.

Giving is not about how much you give.

Luke 16:10-15.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

Are you giving?

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