Bring an Offering

September 22, 1991

Psalm 96:8

Introduction:

According to our Lord, we are supposed to worship God in spirit and in truth. But in one part of our worship services we often say, "Let us worship the Lord with tithes and offerings." Money is the essence of material reality. What part does money have in worship? What do you think about the offering? The time in our service when we collect money?

Have you ever stopped to think about this time when men and women lay hard-earned cash on shiny brass plates that are actually part of the church furnishings? Do you wonder why we take an offering when we come together in worship?

'Is there any question? God needs money to run His church.'

There is no question that the money we give in our offerings is the life-blood of the work of the church. There is no question that from time to time we give, perhaps a little extra, because we perceive that the church needs the money at that particular time.

But is the need for money the basic drive behind the offering? Or is there another need? Perhaps we bring tithes and offerings because we have a deep need to express something important to God?

There are many questions we could raise about the offering: Does it matter how much money I give? ... isn't it the spirit behind the giving that counts? ... why talk about giving in relationship to worship, anyway? I probably will bring up more questions than I answer. All the same, I ask you just now to take a look at sacrifice and giving as part of worship:

I. THE IDEA OF GIVING IN WORSHIP

(Psalm 96:8) "Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts."

The very earliest activities of man as recorded in the Bible had to do with the offering of a sacrifice to God by the first brothers, Cain and Abel.
It is significant that the first discussion about offering to God ended in a tragic clash, and people have been disagreeing about such matters ever since. Still, somehow from the beginning of human history, it has been important to pray, and to come to God with some token of sacrifice in hand.
To trace the history of sacrifice as part of prayer and in known human cultures and religions would make an interesting study for a lifetime. The part that sacrifice and offering have had in worship in the Judeo-Christian scriptures runs straight through from Genesis to Revelation. Part of the worship of Jehovah God is dedicating to God that which is precious to the worshiper. And some form or other of offering seems to be a common thread of most if not all the religions of the world.
1. But in pagan religions this universal idea of sacrifice in worship is corrupted, and is centered, not on the goodness and love and holiness of a God of grace, but on man instead.
  Pagan sacrifices are for good luck, or for the appeasement of angry gods, or for the buying of favor. [It is a matter of record that many world religions have featured human sacrifice to insure harvests, or to make sure summer would return, or whatever. Cite: Aztec, Mayan pyramid discoveries; human sacrifices, etc.]
2. Sad to say, many so-called Christians bring offerings for the very same reasons: to appease an angry God, or to bring good luck, or for fear of what will happen if they don't.
  Certainly this is not the kind of sacrifice our Bible teaches; certainly NOT the kind of offering that God demands of His children.

So- why DO we have offerings as part of worship— and how OUGHT we to give to God?

II. OUR GOD MAKES IT CLEAR OUR SACRIFICES ARE NOT FOR HIS UPKEEP

(Psalm 50:12) "If I were hungry, would I tell you? The cattle on a thousand hills are mine ... you cannot enrich Me!"

Make no mistake, our offerings are designated for the upkeep of God's anointed church. And that kind of upkeep is God-ordained, and not at all wrong.
In the Old Testament, the system of tithes- actually begun long before the Law- maintained the orders of priests and the Tabernacle.
In the New Testament the early believers at first had "all things in common" and gave liberally of their money and goods as well as their very lives to see the church go forward. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9: (11)
"If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? . . . Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel ..."
So it is not wrong that the tithes and offerings support the visible church. It is right and proper that we give to God through the church; or, that we give to the church as unto God.
But our giving does not enrich God, nor if we withhold our sacrifice does it diminish God. We may by withholding our gifts impoverish some local work, and in so doing impoverish ourselves; but make no mistake, we shall not bankrupt God Almighty.
Giving is a response of love and obedience aqnd thanksgiving to God by His people. (Psalm 50:14) "Offer to God a sacrifice ... of thanksgiving!! And pay your vows, etc."
The fact that "it pays" to put God first, or that "You can't outgive God" or "Tithing makes us partners with God" may be very true. But these motives for giving are still based on a reward and punishment, serve-God-for-profit concept of giving. There are higher motives. True giving involves love.

III. GIVING: GOD CENTERED, GOD-INITIATED SACRIFICE

Love involves sacrifice. There has to be a giving up of something of self in the favor of the one loved. God is the Initiator of love. Perhaps that is at the heart of giving in worship; the expression of the other-centeredness.
God has taken the initiative in this self-giving. God could not change His holiness, nor would we ever wish Him so to do. But God could and has stooped in love to give of Himself because He loved us. Our giving needs reflect that self-giving. In Hebrews is a passage that tells what love and sacrifice really are all about:
(Hebrews 9:11-14) "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more prefect tabernacle that is not man- made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God?" ... (26b) "But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to brings salvation to those who are waiting for him."
This great LOVE is at the heart of who and what God IS. It is not 'just by Jesus Christ, who loves us and placates the Father who is angry with us,' but this great sacrifice of love expressed at Calvary is by the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who share heaven's life with us in the Incarnation.
The Cross of Calvary, mystery of God's love, makes the idea of our paying for our own salvation by the value of our money or by the filthy rags of our own righteousness not only absurd but actually an insult to the Father and the Son. When the perfect sacrifice has been made, how can we ever say, "And now, in addition to your life which is poured out for me, I will give You five dollars? Or fifty-million dollars?"
But how do offerings and sacrifices translate into what we do with MONEY in our church services? Is there any connection? Doesn't Romans 12:1,2 speak of a different KIND of offering?

IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WIDOW'S OFFERING (Luke 20:1-4)

The story of the widow's mites is important. It is told in the context of Jesus' final days of ministry. Jesus used the widow as an example of how properly to give.
He watched rich and poor give to the temple treasury that day, and he commented only on this one woman's way of giving. He indicated that the way this poor widow gave was the right way to make offering a part of worship. How?
She had three things going for her:
1. SHE HAD POVERTY TO BRING HER FACE TO FACE WITH LIFE AT ELEMENTAL, IMPORTANT LEVELS. It isn't hard to face up to what is really important in life WHEN LIFE IS REDUCED TO ESSENTIALS.
  I have been poor, materially; and while I am not now rich by any means, I have more than enough to eat. I am not espousing material poverty as good in any way. Yet Jesus told us, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Poverty, being poor in spirit, is the realization that all of us are dependent on God for our very existence. This woman's poverty was apparent. We are "affluent." Look at all the things we have! What is hard for us who live very near to Laodocia to grasp is that we are in abject poverty as well! Our bargaining, our self-righteousness cannot buy life when the time comes for us to face the Judgment. This woman had no false security built on temporal, material substance.
2. THIS POOR WOMAN HAD A HEALTHY FAITH AND TRUST, ENOUGH SO THAT SHE COULD FREELY GIVE to a temple run by imperfect humans in the name of God.
  It was not difficult for her to understand that she was not enriching God. Yet she gave; her money was needed. She would not say, "The people who run this Temple are not to be trusted— I'll send my money to the true ministry on the TV"; or, "I need this money, and the rich people can give my share." No, she had faith and trust to bring what she could, not what she thought she could afford, but all that she had, to God.
3. One other thing this woman had— that every true giver has. SHE HAD DIVINE APPROVAL. It wasn't just that Jesus was there watching. She couldn't know that He was going to make her an object lesson. But she knew that God saw, that He knew— and she was living in partnership with Him. His approval was all she needed!
OUR GIVING CAN BE GOD-CENTERED. It can exalt God's name. It can go beyond a legal decimal point. It can go beyond the expectation of return. It can be an expression of our expression of love for the sacrifice God has made for us. Much of our giving has been stuck on lower motivation: [Cite illustration: Father asked son who was working when he was going to buy a car. Son said he was waiting for the hundredfold return on the $50 he had given to God. Father, who was wiser in the faith, said, "You already have your return— it is called a job!"]
ALL OF LIFE CAN HONOR GOD. God wants to be partners with us in the details of our workday world. Our giving must reflect a love for Him that exalts His name.

Conclusion:

I was brought up believing in storehouse tithing. I came through the Great Depression in a house where my parents tithed, and where God supplied. Their tithing was not in order to demand of God, but it certainly made it easier for their faith to reach out in times of need. I KNOW BY EXPERIENCE THAT STOREHOUSE TITHING WORKS!

But I was also saved because I didn't want to go to hell. I was taught that sin separates me from God, and if I persisted in sin, I would be permanently separated. I BELIEVED THAT! (AND I STILL DO!)

BUT I HOPE I GIVE NOW FOR HIGHER REASONS... AND I HOPE I SERVE GOD FOR LOVE, AND NOT JUST AS A FIRE ESCAPE!

I am not preaching "Give to get!" this morning. I do believe that no one is a fool who accepts God's offer of partnership. Bit I am preaching that giving, and that sacrificing, giving what costs, giving our all literally in submission, and giving our tithes and whatever else God requests through the church, is part of the worship of God. And I BELIEVE THAT THE HIGHEST KIND OF GIVING DURING WORSHIP, AS WELL AS IN ALL OF LIFE— IS A TOTAL SURRENDER IN LOVE OF ALL OUR LOVES BECAUSE WE LOVE!

Prayer

#405 I'd Rather Have Jesus