Giving

10 March, 2019

Pastor Andrew Miller

In the song we just sang, we sang, ‘Lord, I give you my heart, I give you my soul, I live for you alone’. They’re great words of devotion but what do we really mean by them? Let’s start with a quiz.

1. It means, in giving our heart, we are all to become organ donors
2. It means, in giving away our soul, we are to become soulless zombies
3. It means, in living for God alone, we are to shun all other relationships and live as hermits for God.
4. It means that we should try hard to live a good life for God but not apply giving everything to Him too literally because then we wouldn’t have anything left for ourselves.
5. None of the above.

I hope you picked ‘E’ because A to D are all wrong. We can find a very good answer to this question of what it means to give our heart, soul and lives to God, in Jesus’ extraordinary teaching in Matthew 5. It’s in Matthew 5 that we find the Sermon on the Mount, which starts with what we call the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” etc Mat 5:3). And from there, Jesus goes on to give some fundamental Christian teaching.

Jesus taught,

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”

Matthew 5: 21,22a

あなたがたの教えでは、『人を殺した者は、死刑に処す』とあります。 22 しかし、わたしはさらにこうつけ加えましょう。人に腹を立てるなら、たとえ相手が自分の家族であっても、裁判にかけられます。

マタイの福音書 5:21,22a

Jesus taught,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Matthew 5:27,28

あなたがたの教えでは、『姦淫してはならない』とあります。 28 しかし、だれでもみだらな思いで女性を見るなら、それだけでもう、心の中では姦淫したことになるのです。

マタイの福音書 5:27,28

Jesus also taught,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:43-45a

『隣人を愛し、敵を憎め』とは、よく言われることです。 44 しかし、わたしは言います。敵を愛し、迫害する人のために祈りなさい。 45 それこそ、天の父の子どもであるあなたがたに、ふさわしいことです。

マタイの福音書 5:43-45a

It’s sometimes said that when Jesus gave this teaching, He was raising the bar. ‘The Old Testament set one moral standard, the New Testament introduces a higher moral standard in Christ.’ It might appear this way, but this is not actually true. God’s moral perfection – His standards for love – don’t change.

The standards that Jesus taught in Matthew 5 weren’t new. They were already there in the Old Testament but they had been lost or forgotten or suppressed through the oral law handed down from generation to generation. Jesus simply restored the law to its original design. That’s why Jesus said that he wasn’t coming to abolish the law but to fulfil it. (Matthew 5:17)

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had focussed so much on outward obedience to the law, that they had forgotten about the spirit of the law and the God of the law. This is why they had introduced so many petty rules about how to eat and wash and behave, to the extent that it actually became ungodly. This is why they were so incensed when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. But it was always right to heal on the Sabbath. It was always wrong to hate others. With His teaching, Jesus brings us back to God’s intentions for godly living. Jesus teaches us and shows us what it really means to give our hearts, souls and lives to God.

There is one other area which this giving of ourselves applies to and that’s our money. For those who are new to our church, I rarely speak on money. I fact, I speak so infrequently on money and financial giving that I’ve probably been irresponsible on the matter. But at this time in the life of our church, I think it’s a very good time for us to look again at what God teaches about money and giving.

Simply put, the Bible teaches that we are to tithe our income. That is, we are to give 10% of what we earn to the church. For those who are new to church or new to the faith, that might come as a shock. I grew up in a church which never taught about tithing so even as a long-term Christian, when I first learned about tithing, I was like ‘Woah!’. 10% seemed like such a big hit. But as I learned more about tithing, I came to understand that it is a wonderful part of Christian worship.

And that’s what tithing is. It’s an act of worship. It is an expression of your love for and trust in God. Tithing is NOT primarily about money. It’s about trusting and loving God with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your life.

There are two aspects to tithing. The first is a heart matter: worship. We heard about this two weeks ago when Pastor Mike spoke about Cain and Abel’s offering in Genesis 4. Their offering was an act of worship – acceptable in Able’s case, and unacceptable in Cain’s. Tithing reflects a heart of worship before God. We see this when Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, the godly priest and King of Salem in Genesis 14.

The second aspect to tithing is a practical matter: sustaining the house of God.

“I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.”

Numbers 18:21

同族のレビ族には、幕屋での仕事の報酬として、イスラエル中からささげられる中から十分の一のささげ物を与えよう。

民数記 18:21

That’s why even today, we continue to tithe, firstly as an act of worship; and secondly as a practical matter of supporting the church and its mission.

At MIC, we have taken a very big, necessary and good step of taking on a full-time pastor from next month. We need to honor the tithe and keep it holy to the Lord at all times, and especially at this time in our church’s life. We must be faithful in tithing to the church. If we want to give to people or charities outside of the church, that’s fine, but that should be done with gifts above and beyond the tithe. The tithe is holy to the Lord and is to be brought into the house of the Lord.

When the Israelites failed to do this, they were chastised for it in very strong terms.

Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

Malachi 3:8-10a

人は神のものを盗めるだろうか。できるわけがない。
ところがあなたがたは、わたしのものを盗んでいる。
『何のことですか。
いつ神のものを盗みましたか。』
あなたがたは、わたしに納めるべき収入の十分の一と
ささげ物を盗んだ。
それであなたがたは、
神の恐ろしいのろいによって、のろわれているのだ。
あなたがたの民全体が、
わたしのものを盗んでいるからだ。
収入の十分の一をすべて倉に携えて来なさい。

マラキ書 3:8-10

When it came to New Testament times and Jesus taught about tithing, he seemed to raise the bar, or more specifically, put it in its proper context. He said,

“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith; these you ought to have done without neglecting the former.”

Matthew 23:23

パリサイ人、ユダヤ教の指導者たち。あなたがたは偽善者です。自分の畑でとれる、はっかの葉の最後の一枚に至るまで、実にきちょうめんに十分の一をささげているのに、律法の中ではるかに大切な正義と思いやり、信仰はおろそかにしています。もちろん十分の一はささげるべきですが、もっと大切なことをなおざりにしては何にもなりません。

マタイの福音書 23:23

Our worship of God can’t be selective or half-hearted. “Lord, I’ll give you my heart, but not my time. I’ll give you my time but not my money. I’ll give you my money but I won’t extend mercy.” That’s not the Christian life.

One of the greatest concerns I have for us as Christians and for the church in general is that we’re very quick and passionate in asking God to bless us, asking God to heal us, asking God to forgive us, asking God to equip us, asking God to use us – yet we so easily hold back from God in the process, and that holding back is often financial.

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

Luke 16:11,12

この世の富も任せられない人に、どうして、天にあるほんとうの富を任せることができるでしょう。 他人の富に忠実でなかったら、自分の富さえ任せてもらえないのです。

ルカの福音書 16:11-12

So we are called to tithe, but we don’t give to receive blessing. We don’t give so that we can get more back! That doesn’t reflect a heart of worship.
But God does promise to bless those who are faithful in giving their money, just as He promises to bless those who give of their time and the effort and their heart.
God knows the motives of our hearts and he can’t be fooled, manipulated or mocked.

• We give because we love God.
  私たちは神を愛しているので、ささげます。
• We give because we trust God.
  私たちは神を信頼しているので、ささげます。
• We give because God first gave to us.
  神が私たちに最初にくださったので、ささげます。
• We give because it’s the right thing to do.
  それが正しいことなので、ささげます。

And we know that God will provide for us and bless us. God invites us to try this. God even invites us to test Him on the matter.
神は私たちに与えてくださり、私たちを祝福してくださると知っています。神はこれを試してほしいのです。神は私たちに神を試してみるようにとも促しています。

As I close, you might be asking yourself, “If I don’t tithe or give my money to the church, will God love me any less?”
Wrong question. The right question is, “If I don’t tithe – or at least commit to starting a spiritual journey towards tithing – will I love God any less?”
「十分の一献金をせず、教会に献金をしなかったら、神はそれほど愛してくれないだろうか」
間違った質問です。こう問うべきです。「十分の一献金をせず、そうしようともしないなら、あなたは神をより愛さなくなるだろうか」

Pray.