Of Spice and Men

Matthew 23:23, Genesis 14

October 26, 1997

by Dave Wilkinson

God changed my a few years ago. This remarkable event -- me having my mind changed -- happened through a group of believers with whom I am bound as a brother in Jesus Christ.

Once a month I meet with pastors from other Presbyterian churches in a covenant group -- kind of like the small groups many of you are involved with through this church.

The topic at one meeting was stewardship and how we teach stewardship. I said confidently, "I do not teach a ten percent tithe. I believe that the tithe is a part of the Old Testament law and that, as New Testament people, we are not under the law." I explained that I teach what Paul wrote to the Corinthians -- that Christian giving is to be regular, planned, in proportion to income, sacrificial and, above all, cheerful.

But these good brothers did not nod and say: "how true, how true." instead, they said, "you're wrong." Then they showed me why I was wrong. And I came away convinced that not only had I thought wrong but that I had also taught wrong. That's important. This congregation needs for me to teach right. It's central to our growth.

The verse my brothers showed me is Matthew 23:23. In this verse Jesus rails against the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. He says, "woe to you, teachers of the law and pharisees, you hypocrites, you give a tenth of your spices, mint and dill and cumin."

When you go home today look in your spice rack. You have your little spices in there. They are not very big. But the Pharisees are so dedicated to the law, that they even tithe that tiny, tiny portion of what they have. "You give a tenth of your spices," Jesus says, "but you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, faithfulness." And then he says, "you should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former."

Now listen to that. It does not sound like Jesus is abolishing the tithe, does it? Yes, he is saying we should be aware of weightier matters. But we also should not neglect the tithe -- that the tithe is something God continues to expect from His people.

The word tithe means tenth. There is no such thing as a two percent tithe, or five percent tithe, or a person who is making $70,000 a year saying, "well, I have tithed to give $50 a week to the Lord." That is not what a tithe means. For $70,000 a weekly tithe is $135. Tithe means tenth. Jesus is talking about the tithe being the setting apart, not of leftovers, but of the first fruits -- ten percent off the top.

In my life one of the things that seems to be associated with tithing is, "boy, that family must be really Godly. I mean they tithe." You’ve seen the bumper stickers that say, "Honk if you love Jesus." I like the one that says, "Anyone can honk. If you love Jesus, tithe!" But here Jesus says the tithe is a little thing -- just the basics.

My learned brothers then showed me that the tithe is part of the Old Testament, but it is not just a part of the law. The tithe was placed into the law because it was a principle that God built into his creation long before. Abraham is the first recorded tither. After a successful battle, he went to a priest named Melchizedek and offered one tenth of all of the spoils and dedicated them to God. The tithe is a principle that God built into his people long before the coming of the law.

So when I talk about God's principle of the tithe, I am not coming in a sense of this as a law commandment. God has built in a principle of our giving back to Him what we have received so that we can experience the flow of his blessing and see his power in our church.

Here is some straight information about our congregational giving at Moorpark Presbyterian.

We, as a congregation, give somewhat in excess for the national average of members of healthy churches in the U.S. But you have to know that our average household income is way above the national average. The average household income in Moorpark is somewhere around $80,000 a year.

As a congregation we have an operating budget that is as much as 50% less than churches of comparable size in our Presbytery. We do more with less than any church I know of. But we are under funded and understaffed -- especially in the area of Christian Education. In the projected budget for 1998 is a new position for a part time Director of Christian Education to continue and strengthen the exciting Tuesday Night Together program our intern Janet Loughry has begun. This person will also give focused attention to the further improvement of our remarkably rich Sunday School program -- remarkable because its been done entirely by volunteers. Whether or not this badly needed position is created will depend on your pledges.

We also have needs in the area of facilities. Right now a every dime received in the building fund goes to service the debts we already have. We need a twenty five percent increase in the building fund before we can start to move on our Christian Education wing. With the city government limits on how long we can have the modulars, we are running low on time.

Now this may sound like the election next month in Moorpark where there is a bond issue for schools and also a proposed increase in the taxes for maintaining our parks. The fear is that the proposals will be seen as competitive -- that they will cancel each other out. The Moorpark Star quoted one school trustee as saying: "The worry is that voters might look at them collectively and turn them both down. If we had our druthers, we wouldn’t have put them on the same ballot."

Now here am I coming along and saying -- your pledge card is a ballot. We need to increase our giving to the program budget and we need to increase our giving to the building fund -- on the same card at the same time. But the fact is that both increases are needed and both increases are very well within our reach. Here’s the amazing fact. If we, as a congregation actually tithed on our average household income, we could pay off our entire building debt and double our operating budget in one year. The math is there. That’s the potential power. The question is the commitment, the will, and the level of Christian maturity.

I recognize that tithing ranks right up there with "flossing for healthier gums" or "pre-planning your funeral." Worthy topics, but hardly likely to put a song in your heart. I doubt if anyone came this morning saying: "I sure hope Dave talks about tithing!"

But look at the power of the tithe. Dr. Hugh McLean of Thailand, tells of a church of 400 members where every member tithes. They each receive a weekly wage of less than twenty cents and their rice. Out of this, each gives a tenth every week. And because of this, they have done more for Christ in Thailand than any other church. They pay their own preacher and have sent two missionary families to spread the gospel in a community cut off from the outside world. They are intensely interested in all forms of Christian work, especially work for unfortunates of every kind; and their gifts for this kind of work are large. They have not only accepted Christ, but, having found him good, make him known to others. Oh, by the way, this church of all tithers is also a church of all lepers -- every person in that church has leprosy.

Did you know that if every church member in the United States were to suddenly lose his or her job and go on public assistance -- and were willing to tithe from the amount received from public assistance, that giving in the nation's churches would immediately increase by over 30%?

All of this sounds good in principle. But now the questions begin. Many questions are tossed toward the minister who speaks on this somewhat less than popular topic.

First, "it's not as easy for me to tithe as it is for the other guy." It's not just the needy person who feels he's not in the position to tithe. It's also the one who says, "I’ve got too much income to be expected to tithe."

A paper boy who came to know the Lord through the ministry of Dwight l. Moody in the late 1800s came to Moody one morning and said, "Dr. Moody, I want to give my life to the Lord. From now on I will give ten percent of everything I earn." He started giving a nickel a week. As he became more prosperous it got to a dollar a week, then five dollars, then ten. He finally rose to be a publisher of a major newspaper in this country and got to the point where his tithe was literally hundreds of dollars per week. He went back to Moody. "Do you know that promise that I made to the Lord to tithe ten percent of everything that I had?" "Yes, I remember." "Well, you have to release me from that promise. When I made that promise it was a nickel a week, but now I am giving hundreds of dollars a week away and I cannot afford to give away that kind of money."

Moody said, "Well, I cannot take you out of the promise. You made that to the Lord. But I can pray for something else. I can pray that the lord will reduce your income to the point that you can afford to tithe again. If you can afford to give a dollar, then I’ll ask the Lord to reduce your income to the place where a dollar is a tithe. " The man got the point.

Not everyone should tithe. The tither is one who is alive to the riches he or she's received in Jesus Christ. He or she is a person, rich or poor or in between, whose life-style reflects "God-centered" priorities.

You see, tithing is worship. It represents you, coming with openness of life, exposing your whole self to the Lord, determined to give him your very best. It tells God what you think of Him. We sing hymns which vow that if a time of persecution ever comes we will go to the stake rather than compromise our faith in Christ. During good times some of us don't even give ten percent of what we have to the Lord. Yet we think when the bad times come we'll give one hundred percent. It just doesn't work.

Tithing is also renewal. It is a spiritual renewal of yourself. It has profound personal and psychological dimensions. Proverbs 11:24-25 says: "one man gives freely, yet grows all the richer, another withhold what he should give, and only suffers want. A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered."

Do you catch the principle? A constricted, selfish life ultimately feeds on itself. What originally is the "narcissism" of self-admiration, accumulating more and more to enhance oneself, becomes a "masochism," in which you begin to destroy yourself, recycling yourself internally to the point that your system is poisoned. God's word promises that if you give freely, you will grow all the richer.

How God works out the dynamics between material, spiritual, and physical blessing is his business. Don't tithe because you think that's the way to become a millionaire. The guarantee of prosperity is there. But let God determine what form it takes.

From my own experience I will tell you that, between the building fund and the operating budget of our church, our family gives ten percent of our gross household income to the Lord. I'm not saying that to hold us up as a model. Jesus himself says that tithing is a relatively little thing. But it would be hypocritical for me to call you to something I am not willing to do myself. And I can also testify that God has always met all our genuine needs and quite a few of our wants.

Pastor John Huffman of St.. Andrew's Presbyterian in Newport beach writes: "occasionally I hear someone say, 'I don't believe in the work of the church I attend. The minister doesn't preach the gospel, and I don't like the program. I am not about to give my money to that church.'

"This is a sad cop-out," Huffman writes. "Get out of that church! Find a minister who preaches the gospel. Attend a church where you can grow spiritually. But perhaps you are the one to blame. Is it possible that you are looking for some reason to hold on to your funds? You hide behind carping criticisms of imperfect ministers and imperfect churches, realizing that you are only adding to the imperfection by your own attitude. If you honestly cannot give where you are, go where you can give."

I recently read a true story about potato farming in northwest China many centuries ago. The farmers planted potatoes by putting pieces of the previous year's potato crop into the soil. They did this year after year. Then someone got the bright idea of sorting out all the very smallest potatoes, called runts, to use for planting the next year. They would sort out all the large potatoes, save those to eat, and cut up and plant all of the runts. Of course, they did not know anything about genetics. But you might guess the problem. After several years of planting the runts, they found that all the potatoes they grew were very small. By keeping the biggest ones to eat and planting only the smallest, soon all they were able to grow were small potatoes!

The only thing that grows from small potatoes in our lives are small potatoes. To tithe means to give part of our breeding stock, our seed corn -- to trust God with our futures. We are not to give God what really costs us nothing.

The Bible says that stewardship is a response, as unforced and spontaneous as a child's joy in opening a gift. We have been "enriched" in Christ" What we do with our riches is stewardship. If we go about our business as stewards grudgingly -- as if we are working out interest payments on a loan, we have missed the point.

In the same way people ask: "Should I tithe the gross or the net." I heard one person respond: "Well, it depends. Do you want your blessings to be gross or net?" Actually, however, if we press this kind of issue we have missed the point of the tithe as worship.

One of the pastors I meet with described a plan to use drama in worship as a part of stewardship education. They have a play where a couple receives a pledge card from their church along with the usual collection of windowed envelopes and special offers from the publishers clearing house. Then they enter into a big discussion about various financial plans -- the trip to Bermuda, the need to paint the house. The point of the play is that giving to God through the Church of Jesus Christ really doesn't belong in that kind of conversation -- as just another financial obligation. Giving to God is a different issue. The discussion of our response to God belongs in the realm of core values.

The pledge card in the mail this week comes as the appeal of God to your life and mine. Yes, there are many demands on my time and my money. But are they really all equal? Doesn't God have priority?

I saw a cartoon a while back where a man comes out of church, shakes the pastor's hand and says: "I'm glad you said 'I don't know where we're going to get the money for the new building.' For awhile there I was afraid you thought you were going to get it from us."

Well, guess what! I know where were going to have to get the money for our ministry to continue to move forward.

Brothers and sisters, you cannot do this in your own strength. There -- to many distractions. You need God's help to fulfill what God calls you to do.

On the night Jesus was arrested, he took his disciples with him to the Garden of Gesthemane. He told them: "Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation." But they weren't worried about temptation. They thought they could do the good thing on their own strength. Remember how they boasted: "We will die for you Lord."

They meant it. They genuinely wanted to stand firm. But they forgot to consult their legs. They ran away. They ran away because they failed to prepare themselves with prayer. They failed to ask for God's strength to make it possible for them to be the people they genuinely wanted to be. Don't make that mistake. As you talk together with you family about the pledge card, also pray together for the spiritual discipline you will need to make your intention real.

We don't have any wealthy persons who make up a year-end deficit. This church does not have one penny of endowment or bequests. The spiritual vitality of Moorpark Presbyterian Church comes from people who love Jesus Christ, who take the biblical challenge to give and serve seriously.

We are a people involved in a strategy. It is a strategy for others. Our strategy must not be reduced to a painful process of formulating a budget and trying to somehow meet it. The strategy is to be a Christ-centered church dedicated to the leading of men, women and children to personal faith in Jesus Christ, building them up in their faith, and deploying ourselves in servant ministries to others.

I am very aware that we have people with special needs in our congregation. We have people who are unemployed or who are financially shaky. We have people who can't do what they would like to do because of the views of a spouse. I also recognize that it's hard for you to suddenly start tithing when that hasn't been your practice.

I am not saying any of this to induce guilt. Guilt can paralyze -- not motivate. Between the cost of living and the residue of over used credit cards, it can take a while to clear the decks for giving. What is important is the direction of movement and the long-range goals. You can't suddenly jump up from the couch and run a marathon. But you can train. You can get in condition.

I would challenge you, if you are not currently tithing, to increase your combined giving to our church operating budget and building fund by at least two percent of household income this pledge year -- and then ratchet that percentage up year by year until you get where you want to be. If the congregation takes this challenge seriously, we will be in tremendous shape in both the program budget and the building fund.

I know who the people are who feel the most convicted by this challenge. It's those who already give generously. In many churches, one fifth of the congregation accounts for four fifths of the giving. In our congregation about two fifths account for four fifths of giving. This is not because these people have greater financial resources. They probably don't. It's because they are farther along in this crucial part of the discovery of God and the discovery of themselves.

A pastor made an appeal in church for some great cause. A woman filled out a pledge card, handed it to the pastor and asked: "it this satisfactory?" The pastor immediately replied, "if it represents you."

After a moment of soul-searching thought, she asked him to return the card. A day or two later she returned handing the pastor a check for $5,000. Again she asked the same question. "Is my gift satisfactory?" The pastor replied once again, "if it represents you."

The pledge card that comes in the mail this week comes as the appeal of God to your life and mine. Bring your card next Sunday morning and place it on the communion table. But do this only if it represents you.