Quite a few people, over the past years, have asked me for a copy of a little mini-sermon I gave at Scottsdale First Nazarene in 2006. I ran across it today and thought I would share it. It starts off a little slow and audience specific, but gets good. Some of the information is outdated, but God's word never changes. Enjoy.
I’d like to talk to you today about a very difficult topic: Money
Let’s get right to the point:
• Our church has not been taking in enough money to pay our bills for the last 10 months.
• Earlier this year, we came to you and asked you to step up your giving because we have some maintenance projects that we have to get complete, leaky roof, air conditioners … We stepped out in faith that the congregation would be obedient and that God will provide a way to pay for these. To date, we have received around $500 on a $40,000 bill designated as building fund. We still have faith that God will find a way.
• Some say, “well you need to cut the fat”. We have already cut the fat. This church operates very leanly and we have worked hard to find very creative ways to make ends meet.
• We have been living on our savings from last year and it is almost depleted.
Where does this leave us? We are praying for an Act of God.
• It would be awesome if God would drop a miracle in our lap and give us a check for $40,000. That would certainly take care of our immediate needs, but it is not a Godly long-term solution.
• The Act of God we need is ... a heart change.
I’d like you to look around the room.
• Make eye contact with about 13 people. These people are your friends, family, love ones, associates, and neighbors. You have known many of them for years … some your lifetime.
• Consider momentarily their lives. God is faithful in blessing them isn’t he? They may have great kids, they may have a good job, they may have a nice house, an awesome spouse.
• Yet statistically 1 of those 13 stands out. Whether you know it or not, that person is getting God’s blessings poured out onto them until their cup overflows. Why only 1?
• Statistically only 1 of those 13 people is bringing God’s tithe and offerings to the storehouse. Those rest of them are ROBBING GOD.
Don’t shoot the messenger, they are not my words, they are GODS.
• In Malachi 3, the Israelites are feeling far from God. They are run down and their lives seem cursed. They are asking God, why are you so far away from us. God says, you are not right with me. If you want to get right with me, STOP ROBBING ME.
• He says, if you continue to rob me, I will curse you with curses.
• He says, bring your tithes and offerings into the storehouse.
• Then he says something amazing. This is the only place in the Bible that we get permission to test the Almighty God. He says, “Test me in this, See if I don’t open the windows of heaven and pour down blessings until they overflow”
• This is one of the ways that you show that God is Lord of all; you STOP ROBBING HIM.
• That is what we need in our church and in our lives. We need the blessings from heaven to over flow into our lives, into our church, and into our community.
So you think that is Old Testament; You want to hear it in the New Testament?
• Luke 6:38 “Give and it shall be given back to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will it be put in your lap.”
• 2 Corinthians 9:6 “The one who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, the one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”
You see, God wants to bless us out of our socks.
• He is waiting patiently for us to be faithful and obedient and he will open the windows of heaven until we can’t contain all the blessings.
• He is faithful; all we have to do is make and profess Jesus as LORD OF ALL.
o Lord of our time.
o Lord of our money.
o Lord above all.
o He is worthy!
o He is sufficient!
• If we do that, he will bless us on Earth and in Heaven with more blessings than we can contain.
• That is indeed GOOD NEWS.
God wants more than just our stewardship; He wants us to delight in giving to God.
• Continuing in II Corinthians 9:7 “Each of you MUST GIVE as you have made up your minds, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a CHEERFUL GIVER. God is able to provide you with EVERY BLESSING in ABUNDANCE, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
• God wants you to get JAZZED about giving.
• He wants you to get ON FIRE about building His kingdom on earth.
• God delights when we delight in building His kingdom. Isn’t that amazing, that we can make the almighty God delight.
Some people say that we shouldn’t think about what we will get in return when giving. I say, if that is what it takes to get you JAZZED about giving to build God’s kingdom; GO FOR IT.
• God tells us over and over again. Give and you shall receive. Give and you will be blessed. Sow and you shall reap.
• If God didn’t want you to think about the harvest, he would have never have made the promises.
• Get excited; tell God when you come with your offerings that you’re excited to imagine how God is going to use the offering to bless His kingdom and your life.
Getting excited about giving to God is what will set you free.
• It will break the shackles that Satan has bound you with.
• Profess that you have no other Gods but the God Almighty;
o Jehovah Jireh – The lord our provider
o El Shaddai – The lord who is sufficient
o Jehovah Adonai – The Lord our Sovereign
• I am no longer going to make my bed with Satan.
• I am no longer going to eat the forbidden fruit.
• I am no longer going to be stealing from You God and I am putting You high above all, because you are worthy.
• Take heed; Satan will come and tempt you, but stay strong. Rebuke him. Rejoice in God. If you have a drought and your harvest is small at first, stay strong in faith.
• God says rejoice, for those who suffer for my sake, great will be their reward.
When you put God first and high above all and bring your tithes and offerings to the storehouse, powerful, amazing things begin to happen.
• Not only does God start flowing the blessings out on you but a miracle happens similar to the feeding of the 4000 and you get to be a part of it.
• God will take your gift and multiply it.
• The church will use it for its ministries to touch souls and create disciples. They evangelize and more souls and more giving and more disciples and more evangelize and more souls, and so on, and so on, …
• That’s the KINGDOM OF GOD, folks and you can be an active part of it.
While all this is going on, God is starting to pour down the blessings “EVERY BLESSING IN ABUNDANCE”
You want to know what the blessings are he is talking about:
• Deuteronomy 28:
o He will bless you in the city and in the field.
o He will bless your children.
o He will bless your finances.
o He will defeat your enemies.
o He will bless the work of your hands.
o He will bless your house.
o People will see God working in your life.
o He will make you abound in prosperity.
o You will lend but not borrow.
o You will be the head and not the tail.
• Do you want some new testament blessings: How about Galatians 5:22
o Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
o How would you like more of that in your life?
• Get right with God and ask for it.
o If a boy asks his father for an egg, will the father give him a scorpion? Of course not. How much more will the Heavenly Father, whom loves you, give you the Holy Spirit to those whom ask?
All this starts by getting right with God. Making him LORD OF ALL. Joyfully giving him back what he asks.
FOLKS, IT IS CHRISTIANITY 101. It should be taught right along with salvation.
We need to get excited about this. If we become a tithing church:
• Our ministries will explode with success.
o We will not be able to house the children’s ministry.
o Our women’s ministry will see 10 fold the success they are seeing now.
o Our food for thought program will ignite and bring in the community.
o Our Mops will begin to touch more Mothers than imaginable.
o We will need to start holding 2 services just to minister to the masses in the community that will be knocking at our door wanting to know the mighty God we serve.
o Spiritually, our congregation will be ignited; your spirit will be on fire.
o You will begin successfully touching the hearts of your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors for God’s glory.
o You will get jazzed about going to church on Sunday morning just so you can give your tithe and offering.
o God will start taking care of your every need and your stress levels will diminish as you learn to believe that God’s word is as strong as a rock.
Do you know what I like to do? I do not pay my tithe and offering by check. I bring cold cash. I am telling you, this gets Satan’s attention. He comes and tries to tempt you into keeping the money; he whispers how much you need the money and how hard you worked for it. That is moment that I wait for all week.
• I rebuke him for God’s glory.
• I hold the cash in my hand and say
o “This is God’s money; not mine or yours”.
o You no longer have any power over me. Jesus has broken the chains that bound me and I am free.
o I will never again give you the power to control any aspect of my life.
o I will never again place anything higher than God Almighty.
o I wave the cash in his face in contempt.
• You want to feel the power of the Holy Spirit pumping through your veins, rebuke Satan to his face holding the main source of his control over you in your hand and give it to God with a joyful heart.
• You’ll feel like Superman and Satan is just an insignificant annoyance. Like a pimple on your butt (pardon the expression).
I give offerings as well. This is money over and above what my financial debt is to God.
• You see, God will bless your socks off when you bring him what is His.
• But voluntarily and joyfully giving an offering above 10% REAPS BLESSINGS BOUNTIFULLY.
• Jesus said, your giving is an index of how much you realize I have forgiven you, because my forgiveness will provoke your grateful giving.
• I pray, “Lord I bring your tithe to your storehouse because you are worthy and I have no other Gods but you. I also bring an offering exceeding what I owe you because I love you and want to see your kingdom grow. Bless and multiply the offering and use it bless your kingdom for your glory.”
• Then I pray for special blessings that I want God to focus on that are aligned with His will and promises. (example, my children, wife, family, business).
Judges 6-7:
In one of the stories of Gideon’s life, he rallies an army to fight off an enemy invader. He starts off with 32,000 people and then God whittles the army down to only a tiny force. He ends up with defeating this invading army with only 300 Godly, Faithful men.
You see, God didn’t need any help to win this battle. God could have just snapped His fingers and declared victory. He used 300 men that joyfully wanted to serve Him and participate in His victory. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be one of those 31700 men whom faithlessly left and didn’t get to participate. Or imagine what it would have been like to be one of the 300 men that could stand proud and say, GOD USED ME TO BE A PART OF THAT!
Closing
You see, God can build His kingdom with our without us. The fate of the Kingdom doesn’t hang in the balance of whether we want to be involved. Because God will raise up a group of people whom want to participate and do it JOYFULLY. The only question is, will we get the privilege of being part of it or will somebody else get the privilege.
I am here to tell you that I don’t want to miss out on that.
CALL FOR USHERS
Just before we have the ushers come up today to take the offering, I want to give you a brief testimony. I won’t share it all, as I know you didn’t come here today to hear me speak. But if you would like to hear more later, I would be happy to share what God has done in my life with you in more detail.
Testimony
I am ashamed to say that I was brought up and lived most of my life as a NON-TITHER. Yes, my mom gave me money to stick in the Sunday School offering plate. But my parents never passed down and taught me the discipline of faithfully tithing. Although I knew I should, I never did much more, as an adult than, then to help a needy cause or every once in a while throw guilt dollars in the plate when it came around. I am sad to say, that I failed to pass down tithing discipline to my children as well. I pray that I can right that wrong and that my grandchildren will be known in the church community as fanatical tithers.
I ignored the spirit talking to me about giving back what belongs to God. Yet God still blessed me day by day. With an education, an awesome family, a great job, lots of money. But I kept keeping all that I worked for as my own.
When I stepped out in faith to open my business, I quickly burned through all my savings and went into significant debt within the first 6 months of opening. My brother, Matt McLamb came to me and shared with me (from sunset to sunrise) the message that have I tried to give to you in the past few minutes.
It changed my life forever. I started tithing and making offerings even though I didn’t have enough money to keep the shop open or pay the bills at home. God started blessing my life.
I started out slow and tested God. I greedily calculated how much I needed to pay and even cheated a little. Low and behold, I started being able to pay the bills. But every Sunday, I would be plagued with guilt about my tithe. God told me I needed to stop robbing him and get away from all my loopholes and technicalities that I used to justify not giving as much as I should.
I started tithing on every sale that came into the shop even before the bills were paid. This is before I pay payroll or the bills. I have been doing this for almost 1 1/2 years now. When I look at the books from the bookkeeper and calculate how much money I need each month to pay the bills verses how much money is left to pay them, I get depressed because it shows me going far in the red every month. Yet miraculously, I have always had enough money in the bank to pay the bills.
The analytical side of me does not know how it works and I have given up trying to figure it out. The faith side of me has taken over and I know without doubt that God will always take care of all my needs as long as I make him LORD OF ALL.
Can the ushers please come forward to take the offering?
I would like to pray with you today that you can hear past my ramblings and hear Gods Word and calling in your life. Please pray with me.
PRAYER
