Of Spice and Men

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

      I don’t just preach small groups.  I do them. I meet every week with the pastors of other churches in town.  Once a month I also meet with pastors from other Presbyterian churches in a covenant group -- like the small groups many of you are involved with through this church  

       The topic at one meeting turned toward 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.

       You will be surprised to hear that these good brothers did not nod and say: "how true” and “you are so wise.”  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 not good. This congregation needs me to teach right. It's central to our growth.

       The verse my brothers showed me is Matthew 23:23. In this verse Jesus speaks out 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 more important matters than tithing.  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 income, 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 right 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 much earlier. 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.

       God built the principle of the tithe into his people long before the coming of the law.  So when I talk about God's principle of the tithe today, 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 on tenth what we have received so that we can experience the flow of His blessing and see His power move in and through our church.

       We do not give to a specific program or a church budget but to God. Always remember that.

       However, there are also some very specific needs and opportunities facing us in 2011--  needs and opportunities that call for an increase of expenditures of about 8% percent over this year's operating budget.  This need has been communicated both in the letters that have been sent to you and then, last Sunday, by Christopher Bryan. Our church budget has been pretty well flat-lined for the last three years and we really need to move forward. 

       In addition we have a pressing need in the mortgage side to increase our giving by $39,000. That is over and above what we need for debt service.  It is   the amount need to repay half of the remaining short-term loans on the building borrowed from people in our congregation. 

       These two things – 8% on the operating side and $39,000 more on the mortgage side will put us in strong shape for future ministry.  That’s a little over 10% overall.  That’s sounds like a lot.  It’s something we’ve done in the past but these are hard times.

       But let’s look at the reality.  The average household income here in Moorpark as of a year ago was $98,762.  We are at least at the community average and probably higher. 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 three years. The math is there. That’s the potential power. The question is the commitment, the will, and the level of Christian maturity. We have way more than enough together if we take God and His word seriously. 

       Many questions are tossed toward the pastor 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 give 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.

       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 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.  Deuteronomy 14:23 says that the purpose of the tithe is for us to learn to give God first place in everything.  We sometimes sing hymns like “a Mighty Fortress” in which we vow that if a time of persecution ever comes we will go to the stake rather than compromise our faith in Christ. But 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 generous 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 mortgage fund and the operating budget of our church, our family gives ten percent of our household income to the Lord – before taxes.   We’ve been doing that for years.  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.

       I recently read a true story about potato farming in northwest China 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 is small potatoes. To tithe means to give our best right off the top and to trust God with our futures. We are not to give God what really costs us nothing.

       In the same way people ask: "Should I tithe the gross or the net – my income after taxes.” 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. 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.

       But brothers and sisters, you cannot do this in your own strength. There are too 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 Gethsemane. 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. They fully intended to.  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, please also pray together for the spiritual discipline you will need to make your intention real.  If you feel you don’t need prayer and discipline to make your intention real, that may be a sign that you aren’t really stretching.  True giving always involves true sacrifice. 

       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?

       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.

       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. I know that the recession has been declared over but it sure doesn’t feel like it.  We also 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.

       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.

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

       Stepping-up is not a substitute for tithing. It is to get to where we are tithing -- and sooner rather than later. If you have heard me say this before but are no closer to tithing than you were five years or so ago, then face it.  The problem isn’t in your finances. The problem is in your desire to do what God calls you to do. That’s between you and God.

       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.