Dr. Rodney Plunket

The Blessing of Tithing
a topical sermon

1998 is Broadway’s Year of Stewardship, and it has, as a primary purpose, the goal of generating a thoroughly Christian attitude to wealth.  We are wealthy.  We own lots of things that people lived for millennia without:  cars, televisions, microwaves, computers, and the list could go on and on.  And I wonder––how many third-world dwellings would fit into just one of our houses?

The two songs we have just sung powerfully direct us toward a thoroughly Christian attitude to our wealth.  If we truly realize that our Lord is “More Precious than Silver”, then we will naturally have a Christian attitude to our wealth.  If we will always remember that “nothing [we] desire compares with [our Lord]”, then wealth will never be greedily hoarded but generously shared.  If we will love Jesus “More Than Anything” then God can use us and our wealth to His glory.

Many people here at Broadway keep me mindful of the importance of using my wealth to glorify God.  They do that by telling me how much joy they derive from giving to the goals of God.  They do that by relating to me ways that they have been blessed as a result of giving to the Lord.  One such person is Paul Stell, and I have asked him to share with us this morning the blessing of generous giving.  Paul.

The importance of Christians who can serve as examples of giving should not be ignored.  The book that each Broadway household has received to read during this special month is by Dr Kregg Hood.  I learned just this past week that Dr Hood’s views of generous giving were developed while he was on staff right here at Broadway.  And the person who really taught Kregg to give was a beloved Broadway elder known for generosity.  Brother R. B. Carter is the one whom Kregg credits with teaching him the proper attitude with regard to generous giving, with regard to the Christian and wealth.

The Bible makes clear that having wealth can be a great stumbling block to the believer.  Please take your Bibles and turn to Mt 19:23-26 and follow along as I read.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?”  But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

I know that some relate Jesus’ words here about the “eye of a needle” to a narrow Jerusalem gate.  Donald A. Hagner in his 1995 commentary on Matthew’s Gospel is surely right, however, when he says that those who understand

the “eye of the needle” as a narrow doorway miss the very point of the imagery.  The analogy is deliberately ludicrous and hyperbolic.  Nor is it to be taken as pointing to the literal impossibility of the rich entering the kingdom . . . but as a way of underlining the exceptional difficulty of this occurring.

Sisters and brothers, we must candidly acknowledge that wealth can lock our eyes onto the things of this world and can take our eyes away from the kingdom of God.  I am convinced that the greatest temptation to American Christians is our wealth.  I am convinced that more Christians in America will lose their focus and allow the power of their faith to die because of their love for wealth than for any other reason.  Satan dangles this bauble before us with incredible success.  We must resist.  We do so by developing a Christian attitude to our wealth.  We do that by, as we said last week, giving ourselves to the Lord.  Because when we give ourselves to the Lord we also give all that we possess to Him and we see all that we have as His property, as His blessings.  Then we can serve humbly and selflessly as the stewards of His riches.  That will lead us to learn to be generous as He has been generous with us.

Paul in 1 Tm 6:17-19 says,

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

No passage in the NT applies more directly to us than does this one.  We “are rich” and we must, therefore, be “rich in good works, generous, and ready to share”.

But what is it to give generously?  Does the Bible present any guidelines?  Yes it does.  Hopefully you have read the second chapter in the book Take God at His Word––the chapter entitled “I Want You to Tithe So I May Reward You”.  Sometimes we have a couple of attitudes that make it very difficult for us to hear what the Bible says about tithing.  The first attitude is that anything inconvenient has to be explicitly commanded by God for us to do it.  Second, we sometimes believe that few if any of the commandments in the OT are relevant to us.  Since all of the explicit commandments to tithe are in the OT, we feel no obligation to comply.

In response, let me point out that 1 Tm 6:17-19, the passage which we just read, does explicitly command us to be “generous givers”.  Since the OT used the tithe (a tenth of one’s earnings) as the required amount to be given, it is obvious that to give generously would mean at least that much.  In addition, allow me to note another passage from Paul.  In 2 Tim. 3:16-17 he says,

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

Most all of us have heard that passage many times, but many of us have never stopped to realize that Paul wrote it with regard to the Old Testament.  That is made clear by the context.  The preceding verse reveals that Paul is referring to the “sacred writings” that Timothy had known from childhood.  The Old Testament writings are what Timothy, a person raised by his godly Jewish mother and godly Jewish grandmother had known from childhood; and, when Paul wrote 2 Timothy, the NT had not even come together as a collection; many of the NT books had not even been written.  So Paul is talking specifically in 2 Tm 3:16-17 about the Old Testament when he refers to scriptures that are “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work”.  Such an awareness would indicate to me that there is something about every OT teaching that is supposed to bless my life and equip me “for every good work”.

But that is not all.  Jesus confronts tithing in Mt 23:23; Lk 11:42, and Lk 18:12.  Never does he convey a negative attitude toward that practice.  In fact, in both Mt 23 and in Lk 11, Jesus tells those who are tithing to keep doing it.  Jesus’ concern is that those persons were tithing while refusing to be deeply devoted to God and to His people.

The writer of Hebrews also refers to tithing in Heb 7.  Again, there is not a negative thing said about that practice, and the reference in Heb 7 is to Abraham’s giving of a tenth to Melchizedek––the high priest in whose line Jesus stands.

What is vitally important, it seems to me, is the person whose example of giving Jesus specifically commends.  Listen to Mark 12:41-44, a passage paralleled in Lk 21:1-4.

[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.  For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Jesus refers to tithing and never says anything negative about that practice.  And He commends a poor widow who gives much more than a tenth; she gives all that she had.  How can we, we who are so blessed materially, give less than a tithe.  How can we pretend that we have given ourselves to the Lord if we give less than the scribes and the Pharisees did to the Lord.

Studies indicate that the average contribution in American churches is approximately 2.5 percent of members’ income.  If every church member would do no more than the biblical amount of 10%, then we would experience a 400% increase of giving to churches.  Broadway’s budget would jump from $21,250 per week to $85,000 per week.

Can you imagine how many more missionaries God could support through us?  Can you imagine how many more poor and homeless He could bless?  Can you imagine our children’s education program.  We could actually afford to teach the Bible to children with the same quality of materials and equipment that are used to them teach science and history.  Can you imagine how many more teens could participate in youth activities because of the reduced cost of those activities?  Can you imagine how powerful Campus Advance’s voice within our colleges and universities would become?  Can you imagine the quality of adult Bible teaching we could have.  We could actually afford to bring in the very best Christian minds to guide us in important areas of biblical studies and spiritual maturity.  Can you imagine how much more financial support we could give to the Children’s Home?  And the dreams go on and on.  And they would not be outrageous dreams, if everyone would just give to the level of the scribes and the Pharisees.  Now if we moved in the direction of the poor widow, God would do even more among us and with us.

Paul in Ax 20:35 quotes a statement from Jesus.  That statement from our Lord is that “It is more blessed to give than to receive”.  Let’s show that we believe it by giving generously to our God.

Margaret and I have this year intensified our commitment to tithe every Sunday, and to give beyond that to several special causes including Mission Special and the Children’s Home Special.  I confess that in the past when I was paid an honorarium for something that I did, I never thought about giving a tithe of that sort of payment.  Now I do.  In fact, to make sure that I do not forget I often write a check immediately and take it straight into Richard Trussell with instructions to put it into the general fund.  Right after I realized that I needed to do that and committed to do that, we received a couple of unexpected financial blessings that amounted to almost $800.00.  That is a blessing which we tithed and which we saw as God’s confirmation that we will never out-give Him.  It is indeed, more blessed to give than to receive.

Please open your worship bulletins again to the Responsive Scripture Reading.  God asks His people to

“[b]ring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.  If you do,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!  Try it!  Let me prove it to you!”

As I typed that passage into the text of this sermon, I knew one of the ways in which God would bless us if we all gave at least a tithe to Him.  I knew that He would fill this building with so many worshippers that it would take multiple services to hold them all.  But the numbers of people in that vision did not excite me nearly as much as the glory God would receive when that multitude gave themselves to the Lord because the people that they joined here had done that already.  Let’s give ourselves to the Lord.  Let’s give generously of our earnings because of our love for our Savior.

If you are here this morning and have not given yourself to the Lord, please let us assist you in whatever way we can.  Please ask God to take you and consecrate you according to His will and His purpose.  Please come to the front now as we stand and sing.