Blest Be the Tithe That Binds

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CrossPointe Community Church
P O Box 126
Chippewa Lake, OH 44215

SCRIPTURE

I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
But you ask, “How can we return when we have never gone away?”
Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated Me! But you ask, “What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?”
You have cheated Me of the tithes and offerings due to Me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating Me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Malachi 3:6-12

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:19-33

SERMON

Bless Be the Tithe That Binds

Randy K’Meyer

Two men have ended up marooned on an island in the South Pacific. One guy is in a complete panic, pacing back and forth, ranting about how they are going to die, hungry and alone, that nobody will stumble on them until they are nothing but bones. The other guy is sitting under the tree snoozing.

Finally, the first man can’t stand it anymore and he demands, “What’s wrong with you, don’t you understand the situation?”

To which the reply came, “Sure I do, we are stranded on this island hundreds of miles from anywhere.”
“Well, aren’t you worried?”
“Nope, I make $10,000.00 a week and I tithe, my pastor will find me.”

Speaking of tithing, we just sang the beloved old hymn Blessed be the Tie that Binds. I chose that song, not only because it is a wonderful song to sing in association with prayer, but also because I knew that my message today is, get this now, Blest Be the Tithe that Binds.

The word tithe means tenth and generally speaking, refers to the Old Testament practice of God’s people being required to give 10% of their assets to God’s Kingdom. The words ‘tithe,’ tithes,’ and ‘tithing’ appears 32 times in the Old Testament, ¹ as in, for example, Deuteronomy 14:22, which says, “You shall surely ‘tithe’ all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year.”

Whether or not tithing is binding upon Christians is a hotly debated issue.

For example, Thomas Schreiner, professor of New Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky has an online article titled, Seven Reasons Christians are not Required to Tithe. All seven of them revolve around the truth that, “We are not bound to obey the Jewish Law as contained in the Old Testament. For we are under the new covenant of grace.” ²

On the other hand, Bill Graham is representative of those who supported tithing for Christians. The Billy Graham Evangelistic website says,

Many Christians believe that the principle of giving one-tenth should be carried over to the New Testament in giving to the church and other Christian organizations. Billy Graham would fit into this category. He said, ‘We have found in our own home, as have thousands of others, that God’s blessing upon the nine-tenths, when we tithe, helps it to go farther than ten-tenths without His blessing.’” ³

Now, I agree with Schreiner and other well-versed Bible teachers, like Youtube pastor Mike Winger, that Christians are not required by God to tithe.

However; like many expressions of our faith, what was required under the law should be exceeded under grace. This truth is the major emphasis of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus repeats the refrain, “You have heard it said,” and then he quotes the Old Testament requirement of the Law, and follows that up with, “But I tell you.”

“You have heard the law says, ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45).

In fact, I challenge anyone here today to show me in the New Testament where it says that less is expected of a Christian under grace than of a Jew under the law. If you can find something like that, in the words of the late great Walter Matthau, in the great film, Grumpy Old Men, “I’ll eat my shorts.”

Indeed, Dr. Schreiner says in his article: “Scripture doesn’t command Christians to give a tenth. But since God is to be our treasure, believers are to give generously and freely. For many in the West, this will mean giving more than 10 percent.” ⁴

But for the purposes of today’s message, let us, for now, consider three things that bubble to the surface from Matthew 6 that the practice of tithing binds us to.

First, tithing binds us to our priorities.

It helps us answer the question, “What holds first place in my life?” Am I really seeking God’s Kingdom first?

In Old Testament times, the people of God were not only instructed to tithe, they were also to offer their tithe as what the scriptures refer to as ‘first fruits.’
This term appears 24 times in the Old Testament, ⁵ as in, Proverbs 3:9 says: “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the ‘first-fruits’ of all your crops.”

The ‘first fruits’ concept was an effort to remind the people that God was to be the first priority in their lives.

Now obviously most of us don’t have crops to tithe; however, we honor the concept of ‘first fruits’ by ‘setting aside,’ as Paul instructs the Corinthians, the first part of our income to give to God’s work. That’s right, the first check that we should write should be to the Lord and then we write checks to Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc. In this way, we are giving Jesus first place in our lives.

My grandson will be celebrating his 21st birthday this coming December 7th. I can still recall that when he was just a little tike, he would come over and I would break out Cheetos or Cheese Nips. And I would put some in a bowl for him. And Matthew would always pick up a cheese nip and hold it out for me to take and eat before he ever took one for himself.

On the other hand, when his cousins Noah and Grace would come over it was a different story. When you put down a snack in front of either one of them, well let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. They were both very adept at using two hands at once. Don’t get me wrong, Noah and Grace are wonderful grandchildren and they both have much to offer. But in the case of snacking, Matthew got the better of them in honoring the provider by offering him the first fruits.

Likewise, the practice of tithing helps us put God first. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33).

So tithing binds us to our priorities.

Second, tithing binds us more closely to Jesus.

There are many important tools God uses to make us more like Jesus: worship, Bible study, and prayer, to name but three. Tithing is also one of those important tools.

Would you believe that whereas there are about 450 verses on worship, 100 verses on the importance of God’s Word, and 500 verses on prayer; there are over 2,000 verses on the subject of money and possessions???!!! The message is clear; money is a significant part of who we are, and how we live out our journey of Christian discipleship.

Adrian Rogers, who served three terms as President of the Southern Baptist Convention said, “God doesn’t need us to give Him our money. He owns everything. Tithing is God’s way to grow Christians.” ⁶

Tithing draws us closer to Jesus because we are exercising our faith muscles by trusting that God will provide for our needs. “And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you” (Matthew 6:30).

A certain missionary was working to make new disciples in an African nation.
As part of his work, he tried to educate the people on the joys of generous tithing, even in their simple economy. One of his special students was a 12-year-old boy. One day the boy came to the missionary compound carrying a beautiful, freshly caught fish from the nearby river. He laid the fish on the table and proudly said, “Preacher, here is my tithe for this week.”
“That’s great,” replied the missionary, “but where are the other nine fish?”
With a broad smile and great excitement, the boy said, “They are still in the river. I am going back to catch them now.” That little boy had great faith that God would provide.

Tithing invites us to sink roots deep into Christ, remembering that He said, “You can’t serve Me and be enslaved to money” (Matthew 6:24).

Tithing is an act of faith, an act of faith that binds us more closely to Jesus.

Third, tithing binds us more closely to God’s Kingdom through the Church of Jesus

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:21)

What we give is an indication of the desires of our heart. When we give that indicates the desires of our heart lie with helping grow God’s Kingdom through the church.
That the desires of our heart are for people to be saved through the ministry of the church, to grow into Christlikeness through the ministry of the church, to serve others in the community through the ministry of the church!

What we give indicates that we have a heartfelt desire to see CrossPointe Community Church be all that it possibly can be on behalf of Jesus. In other words, I think it is safe to say that what we give indicates that we love this church with everything we’ve got.

A few hundred years ago the great preacher and evangelist John Wesley, who loved the church with everything he had, lived in economically uncertain times. Yet he became so well known that his income eventually reached 1400 pounds per year, about $300,000 in today’s economy. So what did he do with all this wealth? Did he tithe it? No, Wesley went way beyond tithing. He disciplined himself to live on just 2% of his income and gave away 98%. He preached and lived by the adage: “make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” ⁷

We are to give as we are able. Sometimes that means giving more than 10%; sometimes that may mean giving less. According to Paul in II Corinthians, “You must each decide in your heart how much to give” (9:7).

How much of your income, then, should you give to the church? I can’t say that for you. With God’s help, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself. For some of us, tithing will be a step up. For others it will be something to go beyond.

In a sermon on a website titled, Faithlife Sermons, a pastor wrote:

I think this passage [he was referencing the Sermon on the Mount) could appropriately be renamed the Sermon on the Amount. The amount Jesus is talking about (in this passage) is a pretty big amount: 100%. Stewardship is not just about how much of what I own will I give to God. It’s about how much of me have I given to God.” ⁸

He’s right you know. Christian stewardship begins with the goal of giving 100% of who I am to God. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33)

Or as Paul has it, “And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him” (Romans 12:1)

What we give to the Lord comes out of a life that is committed to him 100%.

I like the way Juan Carlos Ortiz tells the story of the pearl of great price. A man sees this pearl and says to the merchant, “I want this pearl, how much is it?”
The seller says, “It’s very expensive.”
“How much?”
“A lot!”
“Well, do you think I could buy it?” the man asks.
“Oh, yes,” says the merchant, “everyone can buy it.”
“But I thought you said it was very expensive.”
“I did.”
“Well, how much?”
“Everything you have,” says the seller.
“All right, I’ll buy it.”
“Ok, what do you have?”
“Well, I have $10,000 in the bank.”
“Good, $10,000. What else?”
“That’s all I have.”
“Nothing more?”
“Well, I have a few dollars more in my pocket.”
“How much?”
“Let’s see … $100.”
“That’s mine, too,” says the seller. “What else do you have?”
“That’s all, nothing else.”
“Well, where do you live?” the seller asks.
“In my house. Yes, I own a home.”
The seller writes down, “house.” “It’s mine.”
“Where do you expect me to sleep—in my camper?”
“Oh, you have a camper, do you? That, too. What else”
“Am I supposed to sleep in my car?”
“Oh, you have a car?”
“Yes, I own two of them.”
“They’re mine now.”
“Look, you’ve taken my money, my house, my camper, and my cars. Where is my family going to live?”
“So, you have a family?”
“Yes, I have a wife and three kids.”
“They’re mine now.”
Suddenly the seller exclaims, “Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine—wife, children, house, money, cars, and you, too.”

Then he continues, “Listen, I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don’t forget that they’re all mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them, you must give them up, because I am now the owner.” ⁹

2 Reasons Christians Are Not Required to Tithe
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-reasons-christians-not-required-to-tithe/

3 Billy Graham Evangelistic Society “Answers”
https://billygraham.org/answer/does-a-christian-have-to-tithe/

4 Reasons Christians Are Not Required to Tithe
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-reasons-christians-not-required-to-tithe/

6 13 Biblical Reasons to Tithe
www.biblereasons.com/reasons-to-tithe/

7 Christian History Newsletter, November 30, 2001.
Wesley’s sermon on Luke 16:9 can be accessed at
http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/serm-050.stm

8 Faithlife Sermons
https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/14787-the-sermon-on-the-amount?sso=false

9 When a Man Finds Jesus, It Costs Him Everything, Juan Carlos Ortiz,
Call to Discipleship, (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1975),
pages 42-43.
https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-illustrations/6259/when-a-man-finds-jesus-it-costs-him-everything/