Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Life of Tithing

Read Malachi 3:6-12

When I was a pastor in Altoona I arrived home from the church one night and found the door between my garage and basement open. (My garage was underneath the house) I thought it strange, but figured the wind must have caught it because I left the garage door open, so I kept on going. When I got to the top of the stairs I found another door open, so started to worry that maybe someone had broken in. As I looked around the kitchen, dining room and living room I realized that everything was in order, so I kind of laughed at my paranoia and moved on. When I walked into the study I had at home – it was completely torn apart. My computer and printer were missing, papers and books were thrown everywhere and in each of the three bedrooms every closet and dresser drawer had been ransacked. After the police came and took my statement and went over everything, everyone went home and I was left in the house alone. If you ever been robbed or burglarized, you know the real problem is that your stuff is gone – it’s that you feel violated. It took me a long to time to get to sleep that night and when I finally did fall asleep, I was fully dressed with my shoes on and I laid on top of all the covers. When you are robbed you feel taken advantage of and it’s hard to feel secure and it’s hard to trust others again.

I was thinking about that incident again this week when I read in Malachi God talking about being robbed. You might think that the last person to be robbed would be God – but that’s what He says – you rob me. Now the natural question we might ask is the same one the people of Israel ask, How do we rob you, God? And God says, through your tithes and offerings. If we look at the history of Malachi, we see that it was written at a time when the people of Israel had just returned from captivity in Babylon. The people had been held as slaves and prisoners for 70 years in a foreign land and they had just recently been able to return to Jerusalem where they rebuilt the Temple and the city walls. While they were beginning to return to their old way of life and establish once again their faith, their commitment to God was still pretty weak. So while God called for a tenth to be returned to him - the people were not giving it all to God. And the offerings of animals they were giving where not the perfect and unblemished ones he called for, they were blemished and imperfect. God was getting the leftovers not the first fruit. He was getting the runts of the little not the first born and strongest. The people were robbing God because they were taking from God what rightfully belonged to him in the first place, but beyond the insufficient and imperfect offerings, what really offended God was the way he was being treated. God was being taken advantage of, God was being violated and the relationship God sought to have with his people was being strained and broken. Ultimately it’s not the offering that God wants, it’s the relationship. Think about it, God didn’t need the lambs or the grain or the new wine given in the offerings. God didn’t need it and God didn’t want the stuff – God wanted the hearts and lives of his people. God wanted his people to come to Him and place their faith and trust in Him. That is what the full tithe was all about, it was not a financial issue, it was faith issue.

The law of the tithe in the OT wasn’t given because God needed the stuff – it was given as a practical example of what it means to love and trust God. When God says, I want you to love me and trust me with all your heart and soul and mind and strength – he doesn’t just send us off to figure out how to do it – God gives us practical ways to work this out and the tithe was one of those ways, and when we fail to give God what he calls for, in essence we are saying, God we don’t love you enough to say thank you for all you have given us, and we don’t trust you enough to place our complete financial situation and future into your hands.

More than anything – God wants us to know that he loves us and God wants to show us – even prove to us – his love. Look at the passion of God’s words in Malachi 3:10-12
It’s as if God is begging us to come to him with our tithes so that he can show us just how much he loves us. Tithing helps us develop a deeper relationship with God because we come to God being vulnerable and needing God to show himself and prove himself trust worthy. So tithing is still not a financial issue – it is a faith issue. Tithing isn’t about giving money to keep the church doors open or the lights on, it is about loving God and allowing God to love us. So let me just lay it on the line – do we love God enough to tithe?

Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, says that tithing requires from us a heart check – a gut check and a faith check. So here it goes – it’s heart check time – do we love God enough to tithe? It really is a matter of the heart. The Bible says we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength – do we? Do we love God enough to step out and return to Him just a portion of what He has given to us? Remember – the reality is that it all belongs to God in the first place, it has all come from God and so our tithing is really not giving to God it is giving back to God – so do we love God enough to give back just a tenth of what he has given us?

As we reflect on this, we need to think about all God has done for us. God has not only given us life and then generously worked to sustain our lives in this world – God has also given us the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. God has given us what was most precious to him so that we could be forgiven and enter once again into a relationship with God. When we look at the cross and the empty tomb we know that God has wiped clean the slate of our lives. God makes us part of his spiritual and eternal family and he opens to us the door to eternal life. God has given us all of this, but there is still more.

Through the church God has given us a new family that is here to support us and help us in this world. Through the Holy Spirit God gives us joy and love to experience here and now. God gives us so much and while the thanksgiving season is a time for us to verbally say, Thank You God! Tithing is a concrete practical way for us to show God that we do love him. So let me ask again, Do we love God enough to return him just a portion of what he has given us? Are we willing to stop living for ourselves and start living for God? Do we love God enough to live by the principles he has given us and not just give but give cheerfully and with open hands and with the confidence that God will provide for us in the future? It’s heart check time for us and there is no easy way to say this, do we love God enough to tithe?

If you say Yes, then it’s a gut check time – if your heart is saying, I want to step up and do this, then you have to sit down and figure out how. If we never follow through on what our heart is telling us to do – we are not only robbing God – we are mocking him. So if we want to step out in faith and trust and begin to tithe, then we have to first sit down and figure it out what it is we need to return to God. So let’s get specific for a moment. Tithing is returning to God 10% of our income. Since all of our financial situations are different – I can’t tell you what this figure is – but God can. Sit down with all your financial information: your wages or salary, your investments and pensions and all others sources of income and before you do anything, pray about what God wants you to give. A lot of people ask me if they should tithe on their gross income or net? I don’t know, let God show you. Do we include interest and dividends and what about gifts and investments? I don’t have the answer – but God does and so we need to ask him. Just don’t put off doing something – do what brings you peace – do what feels right in your gut, it may not be easy – but step out and do it.

As you figure out your tithe, I want to give you a word of caution, for many people their tithe may be significantly higher than what they may be currently giving. I think it was Scottie and LeAnn who said they were putting their $20 in the offering plate, but when they sat down to figure out their weekly tithe, it was considerable more than $20. If you do the math, working 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job would require you to give more than $20 a week in a tithe, so giving God the full tithe may seem like a big financial step, maybe even an impossible one, but it is exactly these impossible steps of faith that lead us closer to God and God is just waiting for us to take this step of faith. I picture God as the mother or father who is just waiting with open arms for their child to take that first step. They can’t do it for their child but they know it will be the best thing for them, and when they take that first step – they are right there to celebrate and support, to embrace them or to encourage them in another step.

Let me also say that I know there are some of you that are really struggling financially right now and you may not have enough money at the end of the month to pay our bills. Here’s what I would ask of you – sit down and figure out your tithe. It may not be very much, but if you can give it to God – God will honor you and God will provide for you. Now one of the ways that God provides for us is through the people of God called the church, so if you tithe and yet you still have financial needs – would you please come and talk with us so that we can reach out to support you. Here’s the truth of God’s economy – if everyone would tithe – there would be no one in need among us because we would have all the resources necessary to provide for those in need.

If we get our hearts right and make the decision to tithe, and if we do the gut check and work out the details – then we are ready for the faith check. The faith check is following through and giving back to God the full tithe. It’s writing that first check and placing it in the offering, and then it’s doing it week after week, month after month, year after year. You can’t just give once and then be done – tithing is a lifestyle where we consistently put God first and the truth is that tithing may require us to change our lifestyle. Maybe we don’t eat out as much, maybe we don’t buy as many new clothes. Maybe we forgo the latest technological gadget, maybe we buy one less gift during the holiday season or find ways to give gifts that don’t cost anything. Tithing may require a change in our lifestyle – but it will be a change that will bring us more joy because it will be a change that will bring us closer to God.

Tithing is also something we need to revisit again and again in our lives. If you have been tithing for many years, let me ask you to sit down again and simply ask God what he wants you to return now. There will be those moments in all of our lives when God will call us to go beyond what we think we can do. Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water. God called Moses to leave behind his sheep and go out to lead the people of Israel out of slavery and into the promised land. God gave Malachi a message that challenged the people. God may be calling us to go deeper in our giving and practice sacrificial giving – giving more than 10%. We won’t know what God wants us to return to him, until we ask.

Tithing takes a heart check – do we love God enough to do this. It requires a gut check – we have to sit down and figure out exactly what God is calling us to return to him and it requires a faith check as we make the lifestyle changes needed to give and then continue on in a life of tithing. The end result of it all is this for us is simple, God’s blessing, so much blessing that we will not have room in our hearts and lives for it all. The blessing may not be a financial win-fall – it may be a peace that passes our understanding, it may be more stable families, it may be a joy that knows no limits. There are so many different ways that God wants to bless us. Will we open up our hands to receive God’s blessing by first opening up our hands and returning to God the full tithe?

A Great Cloud of Witnesses - All Saints Day

Read Hebrews 12: 1-3

In many churches, the first Sunday of November is celebrated as All Saints Day or All Saints Sunday and it’s a day for the church to remember all those men and women of faith who have gone before us. This kind of celebration can be traced back to the year 270 AD when there was a commemoration of All Martyrs, and in the year 411 AD there was a call for a general commemoration of All Confessors. Unlike a martyr who died for their faith, a confessor was a man or woman who was persecuted for their faith but didn’t die. So the idea that we set aside a day to remember those men and women who, for the sake of Christ and the church, have sacrificed and given so much is almost as ancient as the church itself. Every year when I think about all saints day I wrestle with this question, what is a saint?

Is a saint someone who has lived such an extraordinary life of faith that they are truly one in a million? Are saints people like Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II? Is a saint those unique individuals who have led countless numbers of people to Christ and increased the faith in millions, like Billy Graham? If we go back to the NT, when the word saint is first used it is not to describe those who are extraordinary, it is used to describe all those who trust in and believe in Jesus. Paul often uses the word saint to refer to the believers in a particular city, like the saints in Ephesus, or the saints in Corinth. The word saint comes from the word Sanctus which means holy, so we could say that a saint is a holy person, but do we think of ourselves as holy?

A survey conducted by the Barna Group a few years ago reported that most Americans do not consider themselves to be holy. While 3 out of 4 people believed that it is possible for someone to become holy, only half of the adult population said they even knew someone they considered to be holy. So while Paul considered all believers to be saints – holy men and women, we have a hard time thinking of ourselves that way, but maybe that’s because we have the wrong idea of what a saint looks like. Here’s a story of what I think a saint looks like:

The great pianist and composer Ignace Paderewski was performing at a high society concert in America. A young mother brought her young son in hopes the he would be encouraged to work harder at his piano lessons. While she was talking with her friends the young boy became bored and focused on the beautiful grand piano on the stage. The boy slipped away from his mother, headed for the piano where he immediately sat down and began to play of all things - Chopsticks! The audience turned its attention to the boy and soon an uproar began in the hall. People from all over the auditorium began to cry out, “Who brought that child to the concert?” “Where is his mother?” “Get that boy out of here!” Paderewski was waiting behind the curtains to come on stage when he heard the uproar and he quickly assessed the situation, walked out on stage and without a word of introduction he stooped over behind the boy, reached around both sides of him and began to improvise a counter melody to harmonize with and enhance Chopsticks. As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear: Keep going. You’re doing great. Don’t stop. Keep it up! You’re OK. Keep going.

While there is no evidence that this is a true story, I think this defines the life of a saint well because saints are those who are willing to embrace others and help bring them life. Saints are those whose faith and love help others experience all the joy and fullness of life that God has to offer. Saints are those who inspire us to keep going in our faith when we want to give up. They are those who love us when we don’t know where we are going, encourage us to take steps of faith and try new things when we are filled with doubt and insecurities, and they are the ones who show us the love and power and life of Jesus. William Barclay said a saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God – and they make it easier by surrounding us and lifting us up in many different ways.

Willard and Irene Isley are saints. They reached around and welcomed a student associate pastor into their home where they loved him, fed him and cared for him during a year of ministry and it was their faith and commitment to God and the church which helped to inspired that student to see that the life of a pastor really was not that bad, in fact, maybe it was the life and work that God was calling him to embrace. Bill Dickey and his wife are saints because they loved their church enough to say it was time to close their doors and merge with another congregation that had a vision of what it meant to be the people of God. They loved the children and grandchildren of their congregation enough to see that they needed to join with another church where vital life and ministry was taking place. Margaret Lauver is a saint because every time the minister came to visit her – she prayed for him. She didn’t say she would pray for him, she prayed for him and with him, and at 98 years old, her faith and trust in God continues to bless those around her. Saints aren’t extraordinary people – they are very ordinary people who simply reach around others to help bring the music of life and faith into their lives. They provide support and encouragement to those who may want to give up or give in.

What is important for us to remember about saints today is that even when their walk of faith is finished in this world, their lives continue on with God and their influence continues on in our lives. Hebrews 12:1 says since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses and those witnesses aren’t just those who are physically present with us today, they are all those who lives of faith continue to inspire us to walk more faithfully with God. It is the lives of all the saints whose words of love and faith whisper through the ages to tell us to keep going.

But you know, there is another saint in that story of Paderewski, the saint is not just the great pianist who stepped in to redeem a bad situation and save a young boy and his mother from embarrassment and shame, the saint is also the little boy. Being a saint isn’t about living an ideal or perfect life, it’s about perseverance. Being a saint means we just keep going, and we keep striving, and we keep walking with God.

The little boy in this story wasn’t perfect. He knew he shouldn’t be on the stage, or anywhere near that piano. He knew he shouldn’t be playing chopsticks, and yet when Paderewski arrives and begins to play the counter melody, the boy doesn’t run away. He could have turned and bolted off the stage and out the door in shame, but he didn’t, he kept going and most likely he kept making mistakes. Being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, it does mean we keep going. We will make mistakes in life. We will fail miserably and we are going to want to run away, away from God and away from others, but the music of faith is made when we are willing to keep going. The joy and the fullness and the abundance of life and faith are found when we keep going.

Look back at Hebrews 12 and notice how it begins – therefore. That word ties Hebrews 12 directly to the passage we find before it and what we find in Hebrews 11 is what many people call the role call of the saints. In Hebrews 11 the author goes through all the men and women of faith who had come before them and in essence says, look because we are surrounded by all these saints, this great cloud of witnesses – we can keep going. But if you look at the list of saints – they were not perfect, in fact, they were pretty ordinary people who had their successes and failures in life.

Noah – yes he built the ark and saved the animals, but later on he got drunk and failed God. Abraham was the father of faith but he failed God many times during his life. Gideon tested God several times before he was faithful and did what God asked, and David failed miserably after he became the king of Israel. Rahab is even listed as a prostitute. What all these men and women show us is that the key to faith isn’t perfection but perseverance. We will go through ups and downs in life, we will succeed and we will fail miserably, but we become saints by persevering. A saint isn’t someone who is perfect a saint is someone who doesn’t give up on God, and doesn’t give up on themselves. I don’t think I can say it enough, a saint isn’t someone who is perfect a saint is simply someone who doesn’t give up on God, and doesn’t give up on themselves.

This All Saints Sunday let’s change our perception of what a saint looks like and realize that it’s not about being perfect, it’s not about being exceptional, it’s not about being extraordinary, being a saint simply means being willing to keep going. We give thanks for all those saints who have surround us today and all those who have embraced us with their faith and love, Drawing upon their faith and trust in God, let us strive to be saints by not giving up in our own walk with Jesus. Together with all the saints who have gone before us, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let us consider Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinful men so that we may not grow weary or lose heart.

Building an Authentic Faith - People

Dwight Moody was one of the most prolific evangelists of the 1800’s and the founder of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The story is told of Moody going to visit one of the prominent citizens of Chicago one winter day and during their conversation the topic of church membership and involvement came up. "I believe that I can be just as good a Christian outside the church as I can be inside it," the man said, and he went on to tell Moody that he really didn’t have to go to church or be involved with the people of God to be a person of strong faith. Moody didn’t say much during the conversation but instead walked over to the fireplace where he removed one single coal and placed it on the hearth. Without saying anything the two men sat together and watched the ember slowly die out. After a moment the man turned to Moody and said, “I get your point.”

The point is that our faith can not survive outside of a strong community. To build an authentic faith, which is what we have been talking about these last few months, we need people, we need the family of God to surround us and support us and challenge us to go deeper in our walk with Jesus. Without the fire – the ember dies out, without the fire of God’s people burning around us, without the passionate faith of others encouraging us and stirring us up – our faith will slowly die out. For an authentic faith, being part of the church is not an option – it is a necessity. That God wants us to live as part of a larger community is the example we see all through scripture.

Let’s just start by looking at God. We talk about God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Do you notice something about the Trinity – there are 3 of them, three persons, a little family or community. God himself is relational and we see that each person of the Trinity works to bring about community. Think about the creation story in Genesis, the first thing God does is create a world that can sustain human beings, and God creates a world that can sustain life so that God can have fellowship, and if we are created in the image of God then we also are created for fellowship with God and with one another. And what was one of the first things God said after he created Adam? God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God did not create us to live in isolation. We are not put together physically, mentally or spiritually to be alone, again, since we are created in the image of God we are created for relationship so our faith will not be as strong as it can be until we are part of a larger community of faith we call the church.

Then think about Jesus – what is the first thing Jesus did when he entered into public ministry? One of the first things Jesus did was invite people to join him. Jesus formed a team – a community to travel with him and live with him, and Jesus began to form a community that would love one another and care for one another. The disciples were really the first church and they were created by Jesus not just because God knows we need community but I think Jesus created that little team and family because Jesus needed to have that sense of community. For Jesus to do all that he was going to have to do in the weeks and years to come – he knew he was going to need the relationship of friends to sustain him.

Even the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, understands the importance of relationship and works to form a community. We heard from Acts 2 how this new community of Jesus followers were getting themselves organized and growing – but if we look back to the beginning of Acts 2 we find that it is the Holy Spirit that forms this community. At the beginning of Acts 2 the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they are given so much courage and power and strength that Peter stands up and preaches a sermon that causes 3,000 people to join the church. The Holy Spirit is drawing people together and forming communities of faith because God knows that people will only grow in faith and reach their full potential when they are connected to others as part of a larger community, or family, or church.

Like Moody, I get frustrated at times when people say they can be a Christian and not be part of any faith community or church. While it’s true that you can believe something about God and Jesus without being part of a church, I’m not sure we can fully live out what we believe without the help of others, and I am convinced that we will never experience the fullness of joy and the passion of purpose without being part of a larger community of faith and this is because God created us to be in relationship and fellowship with one another, and until we are – we are not complete. God said it’s not good for us to be alone – that doesn’t mean we are to all get married (at least I don’t think that’s what it means, you might have guessed that since I am single) but I do believe it means we are not to live out our faith by ourselves, we need to be part of small groups and family groups and larger groups that will help shape and strengthen our faith.

Not only does this passage from Acts 2 tell us that we need to be part of a larger faith community – it also shows us what this community needs to look like. We see from Acts 2:42-47 that we need to be connected with other disciples of Jesus who as a group can helps us do 4 things: look in, look up, look around and look out.

We need to be part of a group that will help us look in to our own hearts and minds and lives. Turn back to Acts 2:42: They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Are we looking in? Are we devoting ourselves to learning more about God and how to follow Jesus? Are we learning how to live a faithful life as a follower of Jesus in the world today? Are we learning about ourselves? Are we learning from others, are we challenging ourselves with new ideas? This is all a part of what it means to look in.

How we look in is also important? While it’s great to sit down and read a book – it is even better to sit down with others and read a book ,or a book of the Bible, so we can ask questions and find ways we can process and apply what we are learning. The single most important part of my spiritual life, and the one thing that has consistently helped me to grow in my faith, has been participation in small group Bible studies. I became a Christian through a small group Bible study at Michigan State University because it was there that I was able to not just read the gospel of Mark and learn about Jesus, but I was able to ask questions about what it all means and more importantly what Jesus means for my life today. I had people challenge me and explain things to me and they were patient with me when asked the same questions over and over again. Small groups have remained an important part of my spiritual development. When I was in seminary what kept me grounded and growing was a Bible study through a Presbyterian church. Since then it has been Sunday School classes, Disciple Bible Study, and a Men’s Bible study that have helped me keep looking inward to show me how much I still have to learn and how far I still have to grow. Beyond the Sunday School classes and Bible Studies we already offer, we are hoping to develop new small groups that will in part help us learn and grow in our faith and if you are interested in being part of a small group, please let me know.

We also need to meet with others and look up to God in worship. Again in Acts 2: 42 it says, They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer. The breaking of bread they talk about here was their celebration of communion, so the breaking of bread and prayer was their worship. If you think about it, worship in the early church was pretty limited. They didn’t have any hymns or songs about Jesus – they didn’t have any traditions or rituals to take part in other than the Lord’s supper and prayer, so that’s what they did and they did it together. Look at Acts 2:46 and 47, it says they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they met together for public worship and public times of prayer and praise. Corporate worship is important, and for these early followers of Jesus it gave them strength to keep following Jesus in a hostile environment. We still need these public times of worship to remind us who we are and what we believe. Worshipping with others grounds us in our faith in ways that nothing else can and the world is still a hostile environment today so we still need to come together.

We also need to look around – we need to look around at others in the church and build relationships of love and support. We need the fellowship of one another. Again, look at Acts 2:46, they ate in homes together with glad and sincere hearts. It is important for us to eat together in one another’s homes – it is fundamental to the growth and development of our faith and if you don’t believe that, then think about this. In the June 2006 issue of Time magazine there was an article that said children who eat with their families are healthier, happier, and better students. Children who regularly eat meals with their parents are 40 % more likely to get A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week. There is something about eating together that is beneficial to us – we learn better, we feel better about ourselves, we feel more connected. The value of eating together is significant and I don’t think this goes just for children and education. There is something spiritual about eating together. Think about it, the Passover meal which was the most holy worship time for the Jewish people took place at a family dinner. It was in the course of a meal that Jesus said to his friends, this is my body given for you and this is my blood which is shed for you. We will grow in our faith when we eat in small groups together where we can lean from one another and get support and love and encouragement from one another. What is sad, however, is that almost 2/3 of all people rarely if ever invite people into their homes for dinner. Family meals and having friends over for a dinner is a tradition we need to recovery both for the sake of our families and our faith.

So together in small groups and large groups we need to look in and learn, we need to look up and worship, we need to look around and develop relationships of ongoing fellowship and support, and then we need to look out to those beyond the fellowship and those beyond the church to welcome them and invite them in. A church or any type of faith community is only healthy if we are seeking to welcome others. Look at how this passage in Acts 2 ends, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Now the Lord could only add to their number if the church was willing to welcome new people in. If a church doesn’t have the desire or the vision to grow, not only will it not grow – it won’t survive.

While it’s not our job to change people’s hearts and lives, notice it says that it is the Lord who added to their number, it is our job to welcome people into the community of faith and make room for them at our tables and in our small group bible studies and in our services of worship. As important as the church community is to our faith – it can never become an exclusive club where people aren’t made to feel welcomed – it needs to be, we need to be such a welcoming community that people will want to join us.

We were created for relationship and community because we are created in the image of a God who is in himself relational and who in some ways is himself a community. So an authentic, passionate and powerful faith can only be developed and lived out in the context of a community of faith who can help us look in and learn, look up and worship, look around and fellowship and look out in order to welcome others in. If you are not feeling connected to those around you today or if you are not feeling well connected to God - then get involved in some kind of small group that will help develop and strengthen your faith.

Building an Authentic Faith - Possessions

I want to try a little experiment. Think about one thing you own that you really love. Maybe it’s your house or car, maybe it’s a vacation home or boat, maybe it’s a big screen HD TV with Stereo Surround Sound or a new computer, or maybe it’s an antique heirloom that has been passed down from generation to generation. Picture this thing in your mind and now imagine God asking you to sell that this week so that you can give the money to a neighbor who is in danger of foreclosing on their home. Could you do it? Can you even imagine doing it, or does it seem too hard, maybe even impossible? This was exactly what Jesus asked the rich man to do in Mark 10, except that Jesus wasn’t taking the man through a spiritual exercise or experiment, he tells the man to go and sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. (read Mark 10:17-31)

The rich man comes to Jesus wanting to deepen and develop his faith. Because of his actions, we can see that he genuinely wants to build an authentic and powerful faith. He runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees in front of him. He not only is eager to hear from Jesus but he humbles himself and takes the place of student, on his knees in front of the teacher eager to learn. He wants to be guided, and he wants to know what he has to do to inherit eternal life. I believe this man is sincere and eager to develop his faith and so Jesus starts by outlining some of the basics in a life of faith: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, honor your father and mother.

All these I have done since I was a boy, the man responds. He’s been a good and faithful person his entire life, he grew up in the church and he has tried to do the right thing and live the right way and honor God in all he does. Again, there is the sense that this man is sincere and that he really wants to live a faithful live and Jesus responds positively to his authentic desire to grow, it says Jesus looks at him and he loves him and Jesus loves him enough to get to the heart of the matter. One thing you lack, Jesus said, go sell everything you have and give the money to the poor – then come follow me. Jesus knows that the one thing keeping this man from a vital faith was his possessions, his wealth, and my fear for many of us today is that the one thing that keeps us from following Jesus with all our heart and soul and mind and strength is our wealth - our possessions. While we strive to follow God’s will and live a life that honors God in all we do, we have a hard time letting go of all the stuff we have accumulated in this world. We have a hard time letting go of our possessions.

Now let me be clear that owning stuff is not bad and the reality of this passage is that if we actually went home today and sold everything we had on e-bay – tomorrow we would all be in need of someone to take care of us. There is simply no way we can sell all our possessions and give everything away without becoming a burden on our family, friends, church or society – so simply giving everything away is not the answer. So what is the answer? The answer lies where it did for the rich man –it lies in our heart – what is our attitude toward our possessions and our wealth? Being a follower of Jesus means that we need to look at our possessions and wealth through the eyes of faith. Following Jesus needs to shape our material lives, not just our spiritual lives, so we need to adopt certain attitudes about our wealth and possessions.

The first thing we need to understand is that everything that we have really does not belong to us – it all belongs to God. Psalm 24:1 says the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. I think this means that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. All that we have belongs to God, our homes, cars, clothes, mutual funds, Big Screen HD TV’s with Surround Sound, it all belongs to God and we need to begin to look at things from this perspective. We live in a culture that says we own things and our possessions belong to us and we can do with them whatever we want, but what if things really weren’t ours? What if we saw everything as belonging to God? How might our lives change? My first thought is that we might be more open to sharing and using our possessions for God’s glory.

This is the attitude we find in the early church. If we turn to Acts 2 we get a glimpse of what life in the early Christian community was all about, it says the believers were all together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions they gave to anyone as he had need. What allowed them sell their possessions was that they didn’t see their possessions as really belonging to them individually – everything belonged to God and so everything was to be used for God’s purpose and to help God’s people. If we begin to look at our possessions differently then we might begin to use them differently, we might accumulate things differently and we might even let some things go.

So our attitude towards our possessions needs to change: we have to see that it all belongs to God, and then we can’t love our possessions more than we love God. If God were to call us to sell that favorite possession – could we do it? Do we love the item or do we love God? It’s not an easy question. When I thought about the things I love the most – they were family items that had been handed down through generations, they were things that had come from my grandparents. They hold special value for me far beyond money – they hold memories and family traditions – but I still have to ask myself, do I love those things – as wonderful and precious as they are – more than God? This is not an easy issue and the good news for us is that Jesus knows it is not an easy issue.

Go back to the story of the rich man. After Jesus called him to sell all he had and give the money to the poor it says the man went away sad because he had great wealth. He was sad because, for whatever reason, he loved his stuff – just like we do. And as Jesus watches the man walk away he turns to his disciples and says, how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus knows it’s not an easy road for us, he understands, but notice that he also doesn’t change the rules. When the rich man walks away, Jesus doesn’t run after him telling him that he only has to sell half his stuff, or a quarter of it. Jesus doesn’t change the rules, he is firm and he is firm because he knows that this man loves his stuff more than he loves God and Jesus knows that is the bond that has to be broken for our faith to really flourish.

Jesus knows it’s hard for us to wrestle with letting things go in this world because he knows we are creatures of this world and we naturally love the things around us. It’s not that we don’t want to love God more than anything and everything – we do and we strive to – but it’s hard and our love for the things of this world just creeps back in again and again. There are times when, just like the disciples, I think that it’s just not possible for me to love God above everything. There is just no way we can turn off all our feelings toward our possessions and when we finally get to that place of acknowledging that we can’t do it – we begin to find the answer, because the truth is we can’t do it. Jesus said, with man this is impossible, but not with God, all things are possible with God.

The change in attitude, or the change in our hears that is needed when it comes to our possessions has to come from the work of the Holy Spirit. God is the one who needs to shape our hearts. God is the one who can help us let go of our love for the things of this world and gain a new perspective on all our belongings. Remember that it was after the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples that they had everything in common and sold their possessions and gave to those in need. None of that happened without the help of the Holy Spirit and we will never be able to fully change our attitude toward our possessions without the help of God’s Spirit. So if we are struggling to let go of our love for the stuff we have accumulated, then we need to ask God to change our hearts so that we can love him more.

Not only can’t we love our possessions more than God, we also can’t trust in them more than we trust in God. In Luke 12 Jesus tells the story of a man whose crop yielded such a great harvest that he tore down his barns and built bigger ones to hold all his grain and all of his goods. Once he had accumulated this great wealth he relaxed and felt secure for years to come. But then God told him, you fool this very night your life will be demanded from you and what good will all your wealth do? As we have seen in the past few weeks, all that we work to accumulate in this world can be gone in one day’s worth of trading on the stock market. Talk to anyone who has suffered the devastating lose of a fire, or those who lost everything in Hurricane Ike or Katrina. If we trust in the things of this world to meet our needs – we will be lost in the days to come because the things of this world are temporary. So again, what we need to do is re-orient our hearts and minds so that we won’t trust in our own strength, ability and bank accounts to meet our needs but in God and God alone. This radical shift of thinking doesn’t come naturally – again we need God’s help and we need to ask for God’s Spirit to guide us. But we also play a part in the reorienting our lives and one specific thing God calls us to do to help shift our thinking is to work toward tithing.

The word tithe simply means one tenth, or 10% and the idea of tithing comes from the OT where people were to return to God 10% of their harvest or their livestock. It’s not that God needed the grain or the meat, it’s that we need to be able to give because when we give the tithe to God we are saying in a concrete way that we do trust God to meet our needs. If we can’t do this then I’m not sure we can really say it.

I would invite you this week to figure out what percentage of your income you give to God and if it isn’t 10% ask God to show you how to increase the amount you give by 1%. If you give 3% give 4, if you give 4% give 5. If you will make the commitment to grow in this way – God has said he will commit himself to providing and caring for you. Tithing is not a financial issue, it is a faith issue and because tithing is a percentage giving – everyone can do it. If you have a minimum wage job – you can tithe, if you are at the other end of the spectrum – you can tithe. If your income this week dropped dramatically because of the stock market – you can still tithe.

Sometimes in our faith it’s hard to give sure fire concrete examples of how we can build an authentic and vital faith – but here is one. One clear way we can proclaim that everything we have belongs to God is to return to God a percentage of what he has given to us. One way to say we love God more than the things of this world is to begin to let go of some of the things we own and give them back to God. And one clear way to say that we trust God more than we trust in ourselves and our possessions is to work toward tithing.

Building an authentic and vital faith will have an impact on how we look at our possessions. For many of us this will be the hardest faith issue we will ever deal with, but just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we should start today by taking one step forward. Can we ask God to help change our attitude, to change our heart, and can we ask God to show us how we can change our giving.