Kaleo San Diego Church > Sermons > Unceasing Worship: Glorifying God with our Treasure

Unceasing Worship: Glorifying God with our Treasure

Jake Chambers
Dec 20, 2009
Series: SDSU

Unceasing Worship: Glorifying God With Our Treasure

We are continuing on in our series on “Unceasing Worship.” We have discovered together how we are all worshipers, and how we all worship all of the time. We have also uncovered that God is the only one worthy of our worship and He calls us to worship him unceasingly. Last week we discovered what it looks like to worship Christ with our time and with our thoughts, all of the time. We uncovered how the mind and the heart are the keys to unceasing worship of Christ with our time. This week we are going to look at what it means to worship Christ with our treasure.

2 Corinthians 8:9 (the ultimate giver), James 1:16-18 (giver of every good and perfect gift), Acts 17:24-25 (giver of life breath and everything).

Our God is a generous God. All good things are from God. The whole of creation is a gift from God for us to enjoy. He gives us light, air, food, water and clothes. And beyond this He gives us Himself. He gives us Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit. He gives us forgiveness and He gives us love. He gives us the gift of eternal life and He is preparing a place for us in heaven. Our God is generous. This is different than other historical gods that required sacrifice and needed to be appeased. Those gods are greedy and are takers. Our God owns everything, and all things are a gift from Him.

We do not give so that God will love us; we give because He already loves us. We don’t give so that God will forgive us; we give because He has already forgiven. Because God has given us Himself, His forgiveness, grace upon grace, life, and joy, He is the greatest giver. We celebrate Christmas and give each other gifts to remember the greatest gift ever given – Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ultimate gift. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. All of our giving and generosity is meant to flow out of God’s generosity and giving. Just as we love because He first loved us, we give and we sacrifice because He first gave and sacrificed. We become like that which we worship, and so the more we worship Christ the more generous we will become.

Matthew 6:19-24 Jesus is saying that our bank statements reveal where our heart is. What are you pouring your treasure into? This is what you worship. What are you saving for? What do you sacrifice your money for? I remember for me there was a season of life where all of my treasure went towards golf. My bank statement showed I was buying new clubs, going to the range a few days a week and playing a golf course as often as possible. It showed that I was buying books on golf, paying a cable bill to watch golf, and ultimately that my heart worshiped golf with my treasure, time, and talent. If someone looked at your bank account what would they say is your God? Would it be food, fashion, or money itself? Would it show treasure going to world missions, a generous support of the local church, and random gifts to others in the church? What would it show?

Did you know that twenty-five percent of what Jesus talks about in the gospel is related to our resources/wealth and how we use them? Did you know that in the Old Testament and New Testament combined there are over two thousand verses on the subject of money (budgeting, tithing, saving, debt, etc)? Why is God so concerned with money? Matthew 6 is our answer for that. Man can’t serve two gods! We can’t serve both God and money. Jesus is saying you will either worship God or worship money. You will either worship God with your money or you will worship money as a god, or use money to worship another god. Do you love money or do you love God? Do you love money and use people, or do you love people and use money? You can’t do both. Your heart can’t worship both God and money. God is passionate about how we view and use our money because he is passionate about right-centered worship.

Jesus is encouraging us to “store up our treasures in heaven.” Our money can be used for eternal purposes. We can use our money to love, serve, and bless our church, neighbors, and the world. Our treasure can be used to spread the gospel and have an eternal impact. If we worship God with our money, we'll experience joy and excitement in knowing that we can store up treasure in heaven. Right-centered worship is eager to move our money to “the line” of eternity instead of storing it on “the dot” of this short life. Anything we store up on earth will be destroyed, but we can actually move our treasure to a place where it can never be destroyed. Move as much as your treasure as often as you can to eternity!

Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (warning against pride and greed; all comes from God), Haggai 2:8 “The silver is mine and the gold is mine declares the Lord of host.”(God owns all), Job 1:21, 1 Corinthians 4:7

Stewardship: So how is the Christian to view his wealth and resources? Who does everything belong to? To start, we need to worship God above all else and remember that all that we have is from him. This includes our money and possessions. We must change our identity from owners to stewards. The preceding verses give a clear warning against pride, and against believing that we earned and own all that we have. Some of us are prideful with our money and resources. We view it as our own, and like a spoiled child we view it as “mine.” We are no different than a toddler who has no job, money, or way of purchasing any of his own toys. He/she is given them freely and generously, only to hog them as if they were some great prize he/she earned.

Stewards realize all that they have really belongs to God, and are therefore freed to use their resources however God would call them to use them. So our house, our wallets, our cars, our food and our saving accounts are not really ours but our gifts from God for us to steward to His glory. We need to renew our mind daily to remember that we own nothing and that Christ owns all. Just as we need to renew our mind in regards to our time, we also need to renew our minds in regards to our resources. Repent of your pride, greed, and the false belief that anything you have is yours and joyfully see it all as a gift from God!

How do we practice stewardship with our resources? While we can see from the above verses that stewardship is a lifestyle, the Bible does offer some practical advice on how to live this lifestyle and how to worship God with our resources. We will look first at the Old Testament and tithing, and then look to the New Testament.

The Old Testament tithe: First off the term “tithe” literally means a “tenth” it is a measurement of resources to be given to God. In the OT ten percent of the income went to the church to fund the Levite priests. Thus, the priests were able to work full-time ministry based on the giving from those they ministered to (Numbers 18:21-29. Today, this is similar to the congregation of a local church giving tithe so a church can hire elders and staff to do ministry. In the OT, the Levites also tithed out of their tithe, and gave ten percent to the church. Kaleo practices this by giving ten percent of the tithe to church planting so Kaleo is a tithing church. In the Old Testament they also gave a tithe (another ten percent of crops) to pay for festivals and community celebration. This is similar to a potluck or party we might throw together at Kaleo in which everyone brings their best meals so we can eat and celebrate together. The OT also had a percentage of tithe that went to the poor, and the Lord commanded the people to practice crop gleanings for the poor and alien (Leviticus 19:9-10). In this practice we see that not only did the people of God give to the Lord the first and best of what they had, but were also not to gorge on everything they had left, but instead were to leave some to be gleaned as well. This is essentially not living beyond your means so that when a need comes up in the community you are not maxed out to the point that you could not help meet that need. All in all, the total Old Testament mandatory tithing was over twenty-five percent of income. In addition to this we see in Proverbs 3:9 the call is to “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.” Many today ask if they should give from salary or income (or if they should give before taxes or after taxes) and are usually trying to find the most minimal way they can give ten percent to the church. We see that what honors the Lord with our wealth is to give the “first fruits” and from “all” of our produce. The principles in the Old Testament are principles of generosity, caring for the poor and of worshiping God, by giving Him the best and first of our fruits.

While this does cover the principle of tithe in the Old Testament it does not cover all of the giving. The OT also has numerous places where the people gave what was called “freewill offerings.” They gave above and beyond the tithe for the building of temples, celebrations and other needs. David speaks of his giving of a freewill offering in 1 Chronicles 29:3 and is celebrating the generosity of freewill offerings by the people of God in 1 Chronicles 29:14, 16-18. Today this is similar to churches that give generously above and beyond their tithe to help their local church buy property, buildings or maybe fund projects to bless the city they serve.

The New Testament does not focus on a tithe but instead focuses on grace-centered giving. We saw earlier in Matthew 6 that Jesus still views money to be used to worship and glorify him, and to build his kingdom. He also made clear that how we use our money reveals our heart. The NT as a whole follows Christ's example and speaks of our giving being a reflection of God’s grace to us. That's because our Lord Jesus Christ owns all, and having had His grace poured on us, we are free to live generous lives like Christ. We do see some of the principles of the OT tithe in the NT, but the motivation is no longer God’s command, it is grace. For instance, just like the priests were cared for with a tithe we see in 1Timothy 6:17,18 that elders are to be considered worthy of “double honor.” We see in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 that each in the church should be setting aside funds on a weekly basis for the future ministry of the saints. Paul reminds them to budget for the giving of the church so there is not a crisis of collecting when he comes. We can see the benefits of budgeting your regular giving to the church so you not get trapped in a routine of spending the money that God would have you put towards the work of the local church. This also mirrors the principle of giving from your first fruits and not just waiting to give what is left over.

The NT also shows us in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 that giving is to be sacrificial, joyful and generous. They gave beyond their means and were commended for their sacrificial giving. They were extremely poor, so everyone is capable of giving. It is a heart issue, not a dollar issue. This means even poor college students should be giving regularly, generously and sacrificially. In 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 we see that there no longer is a law or percentage but instead it is a heart issue. This means it will require the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us into cheerful givers. We have greedy and selfish hearts but our Lord Jesus died to forgive us of that greed, free us from that selfishness, and to make us like Him. Ask for the power of the gospel to make you a generous giver!

Our giving is not just out of duty, but it is motivated by delight for “God loves a cheerful giver.” We see that this sacrificial, generous, and cheerful giving will produce fruit. It produces fruit in our own lives as we are freed from the slavery of worshiping money, and instead grow in righteousness, thankfully worshiping Jesus and not money. It produces fruit that will help the gospel go forth, both through the ministry of the church and of the individual. We also see that even in our giving God is the one who is to be inexpressibly thanked. We see that a thankful and worshipful heart will give generously and cheerfully.

Getting practical: A lot of people have no idea where to start and how to give or how to tithe and want practical tips.

First off, remember that is a joy to give because our hero is the ultimate giver and in our giving we get to be like him. Giving is about Jesus.
Pray that God would change your heart to give joyfully and cheerfully and confess when you don’t want to give or that your giving is motivated by pride or “buying salvation” or any other false motives.
Start giving. If you don’t know what amount to start with “tithe” is still a biblical number and can be a good place to start. Start by actually giving ten percent of your income to your local church.
Remember that all you have is a gift from God and is really His. Be in prayer, asking Him how he would have you steward all of your treasure. Look to the needs of others and ask if God has provided you ways to help meet those needs.
Malachi 3:6-10 Avoid sacrificing what you are giving to God to meet other needs. Sacrifice means taking from your self, not from God.

We have covered a lot on money and giving today and for many of you the idea of money being connected to worship may be overwhelming. You may be feeling guilty and ashamed that you have not given in the past, or that you worship money, or that you do not worship God with money and this has unveiled how much you love money. Be encouraged that your giving is not what will earn you righteousness or buy your forgiveness. Be encouraged that Jesus can free you from selfishness and greed and has already died to put those sins to death in your own heart. Be encouraged that Jesus Christ is the ultimate giver and He gave first, and your lack of giving can’t change how gracious He is. I love you guys and my prayer is that we would be a church that would know the joy of being generous like Jesus.

I want us to close with John 3:16. Our sole motivation for worshiping Jesus Christ with our treasure is that God himself is the ultimate treasure, and God himself gave the ultimate treasure out of His great love for the world. Our treasure that we can offer to God is a joke compared to the treasure He has offered to us. All praise and thanks be to God, the greatest giver in the history of the universe. May we become more and more like him! Amen.