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C154 11/2/58 The Reader's Digest recently carried a story about a minister who passed a huge construction job on his way to work each morning. Day after day he noticed a man pounding away with a sledge hammer on a big pile of rocks which he was breaking up. One morning the minister stopped his car and said, "Those rocks don't go down very fast, do they?" The man paused a moment, wiped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt, gave a deep sigh and said, "No, sir, they don't. They are something like the Ten Commandments you've have been preaching about on Sunday morning. You can break them up into little pieces, but they're still there!" Well, there is something eternal and indestructible about the Ten Commandments. Try as we may to circumvent them, they're still there. This is certainly true of the commandment we discussed today, "Thou shalt not steal." This eighth law of life is the foundation of our entire social and economic system. It's the cornerstone upon which our society is built. It recognizes the fact that everyone has a God-given right to work, earn, save, and own. It emphasizes the fact that for someone to take something which belongs to someone else, is wrong. All of us are aware of the more obvious infractions of this law. The misappropriation of funds. The excessive charges for services performed. Poor workmanship. Refusing to give a day's work for a day's pay. The removal of property belonging to someone else. All of these are so obviously wrong we hardly need mention them. But I wonder how many of us have fallen prey to a much more subtle and insidious form of thievery -- the robbing of God. Listen as Jehovah himself says, "Ye have robbed me . . . in tithes and offerings." That's a dreadful charge. If it were to come from a lesser person, a neighbor, a friend, or even a family member, we would resent it vehemently. No one likes to be called a thief. And yet, here in the inspired words of scripture, we have the very voice of God saying -- "You have robbed me . . . in tithes and offerings." It's as if God is saying, you have rendered unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but you have not rendered unto me that which is mine. You have committed grand larceny against your God. That's plain talk. But then, God never minces words. He speaks his mind. He declares the truth in love, and then he lets it go at that. He plainly and firmly states that the person who withhold the tithes is guilty of robbing him and must pay the penalty of that crime. And then, just as plainly and just as firmly, he goes on to say the person who is honest with him and who retains the tithe shall be showered with blessings. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse sayeth the Lord (and see) if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Sometime ago, Time magazine became interested in the habits and possessions of their male readers. A survey was made, the results of which were published. They discovered that "A typical Time-reading man spent seven and a half minutes a day shaving, used a statistical seventy-eight point eight strokes, and had about $30.50 in his pocket." But the fascinating item in Time's discovery was that their "average male carries six keys, only five of which are used. The sixth key remains unused. It's the one, the purpose for which, the owner has long since forgotten." I would like to suggest this morning that, for Christians, the sixth key is tithing. It's the key, the purpose for which, many of us have forgotten. There are a host of people, Christians included, who look upon tithing as a kind of pious extortion, a clever and tricky way of getting money. And they're irked by the idea. It puts them in a wretched mood. And they say, "Cut out the fancy talk. Speak plainly. After all is said and done, it's money you're after, isn't it?" And the word of God responds, just as plainly and just as frankly, "No, it isn't!" The main purpose of tithing is not to raise money, but to increase and ensure happiness for you -- here and now. This is the thing you may have forgotten and is, therefore, the reason this sixth key remains unused. You may have forgotten that tithing is the key to heaven's windows. It unlocks the floodgates of glory and makes it possible for God to fill your heart to overflowing. The story surrounding our text is a case in point. If you read the book of Malachi in its entirety, you will discover that, at the time of our text, the Israelites were really up against it. Their economic situation was precarious. Their national security was threatened. They had a form of religion, but lacked the all-important ingredient of sacrifice and zeal. Divorce was common. Moral laxity was in evidence everywhere. They were restless, wretched, anxious people. To put it bluntly, they were in sad shape! Finally, from the darkness of their distress, they cried, "What's wrong, God?" And, to our utter amazement God did not say, "Get down on your knees and pray. Or tighten up your divorce laws. Or go to church more often or initiate a system of social reforms." Instead, he said, "Examine your pocket book. You've been robbing me. You've been trying to break my law against stealing, only to be broken on that law. Return unto me and I will return unto thee. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." You see, the primary purpose of tithing is not to raise money, but to make possible the happiness of God's people -- here and now! What was true in the day of Malachi is true today. The selfish should still shrivels and shrinks. It turns in upon itself. And, as a result, it diminishes and wastes away. But the giving soul expands and grows. It turns itself outward, in the direction of God and others. And, as a result, it is made happy and strong. Thus, God established the tithe, not to raise money, but to ensure happiness for you -- here and now. Tithing is the key to heaven's windows. It is that which unlocks the floodgates of glory and makes it possible for God to fill your heart to overflowing. What is the tithe? I think it can be characterized in three words -- ownership, partnership and abundance. Ownership The tithe is, first of all, a recognition of the fact that, "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness there of." It acknowledges God's ownership of life. It reckons with the fact that this whole wide world was his idea in the first place. That all you have, all you are, all you ever hope to be, are the result of his goodness. A capitalist and a communist were arguing about the relative merits of their positions when a third person joined the conversation and said, "I'm a theist." They asked, "What do you mean?" He replied, "A capitalist believes the individual owns or should own the wealth of the world. A communist believes the state owns or should own the wealth of the world. A theist believes God owns the wealth of the world. Man is just a custodian, a steward of it's treasure. A theist believes that everything begins with God, and belongs to God, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness there of. I am a theist." You know something, friend, it would make a tremendous difference if this sense of God's ownership of life really got hold of you. It would help keep your sense of values straight. It would constantly remind you that God holds the first mortgage on the whole wide world, and he wants to share it with you, provided you are honest with him. Partnership Furthermore, this idea of God's ownership would lead you into a conscious partnership with him. You would be able to put a sign over the door of your shop or office or business reading, "God's business!" You would have a sense of partnership with him in his great Kingdom tasks. You would be able to say, "I am co-laboring with Christ. God supplies the materials. I supply the muscles. When the job is done my partner and I share the profits." Actually, the fantastic thing about this partnership is the very small portion of the profits which your partner requires. Out in Wichita, Kansas, I have a friend who is in the automobile business. His name is Bill Vance. He is an amazing fellow. I was talking with Bill one day about his business and the success he was enjoying when many other automobile dealers were going broke. I asked him how he accounted for it. He said, "Well, John, I am in business with God. I try to operate this business in a way it would please my partner. I think those Christian principles have something to do with it. I also think it helps to know that God has an interest in the success of your business, because he shares in the profits." Then Bill Vance said something I will never forget. "You know, John, this particular partnership is really tremendous. My partner gives me the ability, the basic resources, the opportunity, everything it takes to be successful. I, in turn, contribute my strength, my time, my enthusiasm and my ability. At the end of the year we add up the profits and do you know what my partner says? He says, 'Bill, you take 90% and give me 10%.' John, I'll do business with that kind of partner any day!" My friend Bill Vance has caught the spirit of partnership with God. He realizes that this places certain responsibilities upon him. He has to operate on Christian principles. But, he also found that it places certain responsibilities upon God. He has an interest in his business, a big interest, and he is not going to let it fail. There are some people who say, "I can't afford to tithe." But, if the truth were known, my friend, you can't afford not to tithe! When you rob God of what is rightfully his, you are cheating no one but yourself. You alienate yourself from him. You short-circuit the lines of transportation through which his blessings flow. You prove you are unworthy of his trust. And, because you are not faithful over little things, he cannot make you a steward over larger things. So you wind up cheating yourself. Now I don't mean to suggest that if you begin to tithe you will suddenly be rewarded with a larger income. It doesn't always work that way. Jesus said, "Give and it shall be given unto you." But the blessings God gives is not always money. But, it always is the blessing you need most! At the same time, however, I think you'd be surprised at the astonishing improvement in your financial affairs. The experience of thousands upon thousands of tithers (myself included) is that when they began to take God into their business and their budget, when they established a real partnership with him and recognized his claim over the first tenth of their income, God, in turn, gave them wisdom to use "their share" more wisely. As a result, to their utter amazement, the nine-tenths actually went further than then ten-tenths had gone before. This doesn't work on a lesser or a lower stewardship. The blessings of God cannot be had at bargain rates. The price of these blessings is firmly established -- the first tenth of all you possess. If you practice stewardship on a lower level you will find it to be a burden. If you give God less than a tithe, there will always be a nagging and annoying knowledge that it doesn't really reflect your gratitude to God for the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. There will always be the disturbing awareness that your gift has not met measured up to what God has given you. And there will be the distressing consciousness of those "other things" this token gift might have purchased, had you not been so impetuous when the offering plate was passed, or your "faith-promise" to God was signed. But, if you practice tithing, you will discover that instead of being a burden, it is actually a blessing. Along with the joy of giving, is the purging pleasantness of honest, forthright obedience. You know you are doing what God demands. Furthermore, you have the satisfaction of giving a real and proportionate part -- your part -- to the Kingdom's enterprise. No one -- be he a millionaire -- is really giving more than you. You are giving a tithe which is what God requires, and your tithe is as important in the eyes of God as the tithe of the richest man on earth. Best of all is the comforting knowledge that, nothing in all this world for which you might have spent that ten percent, could have produced the same amount of inner contentment, spiritual joy, personal satisfaction or eternal results as did your tithe. Abundance This brings us to the idea of abundance. God has promised that those who recognize his ownership over all of life, who enter into a partnership with him, who return to him a tithe of all they possess, shall be given -- open windows and a full heart! "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now, saith the Lord of hosts, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." God is anxious for you to share in his bountiful blessings. The key to those blessings is a sharing and a giving heart. Jesus said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over." You see, the economy of God is an economy of abundance. As my good friend Norman Peale points out, "We are surrounded by more air than we can ever breathe, more water than we can ever drink, more sunshine that we can ever use, more energy and power than we can ever harness. The problem is not where the blessings will come from, the problem is where to find room for all the blessings God wants you to have." God's resources are limitless. As Paul declares so clearly and correctly, "God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think." His is an economy of abundance. But, if you try to hoard God's blessings you will lose them. If you deny his ownership of life and refuse to enter into a partnership with him, you will only cheat yourself. It is when you give away what you have and make room for more, that God is able to open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing which spills over into all of life. One more thing -- there are those who say the New Testament does not teach tithing and that Jesus did not approve of tithing. Such a statement does not speak well of their knowledge of the Bible. Jesus said, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." More specifically, on another occasion, when confronted by a group of Pharisees who were boasting of their rigid obedience to the Old Testament law, Jesus said, "Ye pay tithes . . . this ye ought to have done and not left the other undone." Instead of minimizing the Old Testament tithe, Jesus extended it. Instead of setting it aside, he fixed it more firmly than ever as the basis of our giving, as the point of beginning from which we as Christians should go on to even larger stewardship. Jesus took the law regarding murder and made it include the inward emotions of anger and hatred. He took the law against adultery and made it include an attitude of lust. And, he took the law regarding the tithe and used it, not as the end, but the beginning of stewardship, as he asked his disciples, "What do ye more than others?" It was unthinkable to Christ that those who under the love and grace of God should do less than those who were subject to God's law. Let me show you what I mean. Here's a bachelor who hires a housekeeper. One of the first things he does is to make a list of her duties for each day. Then he posts them in the kitchen and they become the law by which the house is run. After awhile, the young man falls in love with the housekeeper, and she with him. They are married. When they return from their honeymoon, the first thing he does is go to the kitchen, take down the list of duties, and install his bride as mistress of the home. Does she suddenly forget and ignore the list of duties? Certainly not. Instead, compelled by love, she does everything she already knows will please her husband, and then on her own she seeks out additional ways to demonstrate her love. The laws which he had laid down gave her an insight into that which would please him. But she is no longer "under the law." She is under love. And therefore, she feels a strange and strong compulsion -- not obligation! -- to fulfill the law and do more besides. I think the point is clear. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. We are his beloved. The Old Testament law regarding tithing gives us an insight into that which pleases our Lord. But, by his grace, we are no longer "under the law." Instead, we are bound by the tithes and obligations of love. And so, we don't do less, we do more! "Open windows, a full heart, and the sixth key!" This morning will you make a covenant with God to be a faithful steward? To return to him that which is rightfully his? To recognize his claim upon your first and your best, instead of your last and your least? If so, you will be blessed beyond all imagining, for tithing is the hinge upon which the windows of heaven swing. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now saith the Lord of hosts (and see) if I will not open the widows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so that there shall not be room enough to receive it." |