| | Explore | | |

April 27, 2008AM

Luke 6:20-23, 35-36

The Tithe – AHolic

 

Hi everybody!  I’m Glenn.  And I’m a Tithe-aholic.

 It’s not my fault, really.

  It all started with my parents.

   For as long as I can remember they were tithe-aholics.

    It’s the only life I have known.

     Our family has struggled with this for generations.

      In our home it happened every week.

       Every week that little white envelope would be taken out.

        I watched money being poured into that envelope.

         Sometimes my parents would even go on binges.

          My Mom did not have much money of her own.

           I never knew her to have income.

           But sometimes she would go on these binges with my dad.

            And she would put everything she had saved into that envelope.

Then one day it happened.

 My Dad came home with some extra envelopes.

  He proudly handed them over to me.

   I think I was already a tithe-aholic mentally.

    But that day I became a practicing tithe-aholic.

     And it has consumed my life ever since.

      My life was surrounded with tithe-aholics.

       Every week we got together with our little white envelopes.

        It was almost like I was addicted to this life style.

         Everyone in my world was doing it.

          I hardly knew a person who wasn’t a tithe-aholic.

           Maybe a few classmates at school weren’t.

           But I couldn’t be sure because I didn’t see them on Sunday.

            It wasn’t something you were supposed to talk about.

              Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

               Even my girlfriend was a tithe-aholic.

               What chance did I have?

                I grew up in that tithe-aholic environment.

The day came when I graduated from school and left home.

 I went off to college.

  It seemed like I didn’t have much money coming in.

   There would be weeks when I didn’t use my white envelopes.

    I’ll have to admit that at the start it was hard.

     Life just didn’t seem normal if I didn’t give.

      Especially when people around me were still practicing.

       Once in a while a job would come my way and I would fall off the wagon.

        It was still in my system.

         For three years of College it was an up and down thing.

          But I never kicked the habit - I longed to use my white envelops.

           Summer would come with work and I’d be back to filling the envelope.

           The same thing happened at Seminary.

            It seemed like every one I knew was just like me.

             By then I had been hooked on the white envelope for 20 years.

              I couldn’t imagine life without it.

               Of course it was compounded by something even greater.

                It wasn’t just the envelope that had gripped me.

                 It was God.

                  Down through the years I had learned to love Him.

                   I had surrendered my life to Him.

                    I learned in Sunday school, College and Seminary I was a slave.

                     Nothing belonged to me, I didn’t even belong to me.

                      I belonged to God.

                      I was His – a love slave to Him.

Eventually I graduated from Seminary and became the pastor of a tiny congregation.

 It was a group of 40 people who were sold out to God.

  I’m pretty sure I was now the pastor of a congregation of tithe-aholics.

   They were excited about serving God.

    They were a brand new congregation and I was their first pastor.

     They desperately wanted to see God work in their community.

      And they somehow connected that work with their little white envelopes.

       Now you understand why I admitted to you I’m a tithe-aholic.

        It’s in my blood, if not physically, certainly spiritually.

         It was the only life I knew.

          I developed this formula.

           If a person loved God they were a tithe-aholic.

           Well you can imagine my shock when over the years of being a pastor I

           encountered people who said they loved God but were not a tithe-aholic.

            I didn’t know people like that existed.

             I never thought there could be such a combination.

              The Bible seems to speak against it.

               My Bible tells me that to love God and not tithe is robbery.

                Malachi was a prophet who spoke the word of God and he said,

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.  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?’  Will man rob God?  Yet you are robbing me.  But you say, ‘How are we robbing thee?’  In your tithes and offerings.  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you.  Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.  I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.  Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal.3:6-12)

 They had been skimming and cheating God.

  Leviticus 27 told them how to tithe.

   Every tenth animal to pass under the shepherd’s staff was to be God’s. (v 27-34)

    It was not to be substituted with another animal.

     The tithe of the crop and fruit were the Lord’s.

      If any of the tithe of the crops was exchanged they were to add 20% to it.

       This is what God commanded.

        But it was not to be obeyed out of duty but out of love.

         The scribes and Pharisees had lost that sense of love.

          It was their lack of love in giving that prompted Jesus to say; “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.  You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)

           Jesus wasn’t telling them not to tithe.

            He was telling them they were tithing wrongly.

              Jesus upheld the word of His Father.

              The Tithe is God’s – always has been and always will be.

               Nothing will ever change that fact.

                What does change is the love people have for God and His kingdom.

                 Without love we will rob God.

                  I heard this expression a couple of weeks ago.

                   It was not new to me but it keeps hitting me with more force.

                    I imagine you have heard it and maybe even used it yourself.

“You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving.”

 The truth is that all of us are one or the other.

  Some give out of a sense of duty or compulsion, without loving.

   It is not a consistent giving because it is a response to pressure.

    And when the pressure is gone so is the need or desire to give.

     But when God’s love enters in, the giving will naturally flow.

      Giving is the flow of love.

       If you love God you are going to give with joy and a sense of urgency.

        You will see what is dependent on your obedience of the tithe.

         You will see that God’s reach to the lost is strengthened by tithe.

          God’s work in this world is impeded by those who claim to love Him and

          fail to tithe.

So yes!  I’m a tithe-aholic.

 I can be nothing else and still love God and the world He loves.

  And Dorothy and I have experienced the open windows of heaven.

   God has not changed His plan.

    God still has His hands on the windows of heaven.

     He wants to throw them wide open on His church and people.

      Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)

       It is impossible to out-give God.

        The witness and experience of every tithe-aholic bears that out.

         I look at my life as a tithe-aholic and shake my head.

          I have been so blessed down through the years.

           But I must keep my love for God pure and holy.

           I would not want to be anything else.

            I have shared my journey into tithe-aholism.

             What is your journey like?

              May God’s model of generosity captivate your giving.

               “Giving that appears shockingly foolish to the world can prove to be a freeing act of worship for Christians.” (Russell Corban)

“God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.  God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.  God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.  What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man.  When that happens, be happy!  Yes, leap for joy!  For a great reward awaits you in heaven.  And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way.  . . .  “Love your enemies!  Do good to them.  Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.  Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” (Luke 6:20-23, 35-36 NLT)