Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

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Here we are at the end of our LIE$ series. In this series, we’ve been ripping through some widespread lies that people buy into about faith and their finances.

In the first session, we exposed this lie: the church only wants my money. And as we’ve been saying, there may have been some churches and preachers who have been money grubbers, but that’s not us here at Amelia. If you think we’re just out for your money, that money is all we care about, you should know this. Jesus is our CEO. He bankrolls us. It’s pretty good to have a CEO who promised that he would build his church and that the gates of hell would never overcome it. That’s some serious security there. If you’re visiting with us and you think that all we do is beg for money, stick around for a few weeks. Check out what we’re all about here at Amelia, because I promise you that it ain’t about the money. I know that’s bad grammar, but man it’s true. We ain’t about the money.

Last week, we talked about the lie that says God doesn’t care about my money. That couldn’t be further from the truth. God cares deeply about your finances because your money is directly linked to your heart. What God wants is your heart. Jesus told us last week that, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Your treasure follows your heart, which is why God really does care about your money.

This week, we’ve got one more lie to cut down to size. And it’s a big one.

Lie #1 – The church only wants my money.

Lie #2 – God doesn’t care about my money.

This week, lie #3 – It’s my money.

I want to show you a verse from the Psalms. Ponder this with me.

“The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…” (Psalm 24:1, NIV)

The earth is the Lord’s. Everything on the earth is the Lord’s. The world belongs to God. Everyone who lives in the world belongs to God, and by the way, that would include you and me.

The simple and yet profound truth is that our lives are not ours. God has supreme ownership over everything that he has created. He rules with absolute sovereignty over the expanse of the universe and over the details of our lives.

Think about this principle when it comes to your money. All of a sudden, it’s not your money at all, is it? If the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, then the question is can I actually label anything as mine? And the answer is no.

It’s all God’s. Everything you are belongs to God. Everything you have belongs to God. Your bank account, your IRA, your investments, your job, your house, your cars, it’s all God’s. You’ve heard the phrase, “It’s all good.” This is the remix. It’s all God’s. All of it. The earth is God’s. The nations of the world are God’s. This church is God’s. My life is God’s. My family is God’s. And my money is God’s. It’s all God’s. Say that out loud with me. It’s all God’s. Say it again. It’s all God’s.

Yeah, but I’m a self-made man. I get up early. I work hard. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. I worked long hours. I studied hard. I scrimped and saved to build my wealth. I work hard and I bring home the bacon. Yeah, but God made the pig, dude! It’s all God’s.

I want to share a couple of Biblical stories that paint a seriously beautiful picture of this principle. The first is from the Old Testament book of Exodus. Check this out. God had commanded the Israelites to begin construction of the tabernacle. And here’s what the Bible says happened next.

“Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. (By the way, doesn’t this destroy the idea of a self-made man? These people were skilled and knew how to do this work because God gave them the ability! It’s all God’s!)

They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary.

And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.” (Exodus 36:2-7, NIV)

It’s all God’s. The people of Israel lived that principle. The Bible says that the people kept bringing “freewill” offerings to finance the building of God’s tabernacle. Freewill offerings. In other words, offerings that they weren’t commanded to bring. This wasn’t, “I have to give.” This was, “I get to give.” It’s all God’s and I get to partner with him. I get to give to further God’s work.

The Bible says that they brought these freewill offerings “morning after morning.” Everyday they brought their gifts. In fact, they were such extravagant givers that the guys who were working on the tabernacle had to go to Moses, who was the leader of Israel. They went to him and said, “Moses, you’ve gotta do something about this. These people are bringing too much. We can’t even work because of all this stuff they’re bringing to the construction site.”

So Moses actually had to command the people to stop giving. “I’m sorry, but please don’t give any more. I know that is going to be tough for you, but please stop giving. We’re fully funded. We’ve got more than enough to do the work of God.”

And Exodus says that the people were “restrained” from giving more. They actually had to force the Israelites to stop giving. Because they knew that it’s all God’s. The money was God’s. The mission was God’s. And when people believe those two things, watch out.

The money and the mission are both God’s. When you believe that everything you have is God’s, and when you are sold-out on seeing God’s mission on earth accomplished, watch out…because you’re going to become a giver. You’re going to give God his money to accomplish his mission.

Can you imagine this playing out in the church? Instead of teaching on giving, we actually have to get up here and say, “You know, you really need to slow down your giving. We’re fully funded to accomplish God’s mission. Don’t bring anymore because we just can’t handle these extravagant gifts.”

Wouldn’t that be awesome? When you believe that it’s all God’s and you want nothing more than to see God’s mission through his church succeed, crazy stuff happens. Hilarious giving happens, like we talked about last week. You can’t ever know what’s going to happen when we quit buying into the lie that it’s my money, and instead we start believing the truth that it’s all God’s.

The church was founded on the principle that it’s all God’s. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you. I already showed you a story from Exodus in the Old Testament. The book of Acts in the New Testament tells us how the church began. And Acts tells us that in the church’s earliest days, Christ-followers understood this principle that it’s all God’s.

Check this out from Acts 4. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:32-35, NIV)

Generosity was the engine that drove the early church. Some people mistakenly believe these verses mean that the early Christians lived in some sort of communistic lifestyle. This wasn’t communism because it was all voluntary. They weren’t slaves to communism. They lived with a spirit of contribution. They were fueled with the knowledge that it’s all God’s.

And because of that, there were no needy persons among them. They were fully funded to do God’s work. “But I always thought that the early church was broke, busted, barefoot, and barely getting by.”

Doesn’t look that way in these verses. The early church lived with a Christ-centered, extravagant generosity. They were fully funded to minister to others and carry out the mission of God. Again, they understood that the money and the mission were both God’s.

The linchpin of this passage is verse 32. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” (Acts 4:32, NIV)

They were one in heart and mind. There was a unity in the early church that I pray for the contemporary church to recapture because it’s beautiful. Division is nasty, but unity among God’s people is a beautiful thing.

And then catch this. “No one clamed that any of his possessions was his own…”

No one claimed that anything was his own because they understood the principle: It’s all God’s.

This wasn’t a, “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours” kind of thing. This was, “What’s yours is God’s. What’s mine is God’s. It’s all God’s.”

Throughout this series, we’ve been building toward today. God has challenged every one of us who calls ACC home to bring the tithe today. A tithe is defined as a tenth. It is bringing 10% of your income to God. Statistically, less than 3% of American Christians tithe. Here at Amelia, that number is somewhere between 10-15%. That’s how many of us are bringing the tithe to the Lord.

For one week, God has challenged us to raise that number to 100%. Everyone who has made this their church home has been called to break the bank and bring the tithe like we talked about last week.

Yeah, some of you were a little freaked out last week when I started smashing piggy banks up here. It was great. I got to preach the gospel and break stuff. That’s a great day.

Now, we all have different amounts of bank to break, don’t we? Sure. It’s not a matter of how valuable you are as a person. It’s just the truth that some of you are struggling financially while others of you make some serious coin. There are some of you that have really high paying jobs and I have no idea what you do. I don’t even understand your job title. But let’s be honest…you’re not that smart. I know you. You’re not that smart. God has blessed you. You’ve got a lot more bank to break than other people. And the Bible tells us that those with more bank are more accountable.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to a young preacher named Timothy, Paul told him, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NIV)

Those of us with more bank are more accountable. And the more bank you have, the tougher it is to break it. It would seem that generosity would get easier as your bank gets bigger, but the exact opposite usually proves true. The bigger your bank, the harder it is to break.

But God has called those of us with bigger banks to be generous. Paul told Timothy to “command” those who are rich to be “generous.” Command them to be generous. It had to come in the form of a command because it’s so difficult to do.

You want proof of this? In the first week of this series, I told you that I asked our financial ministry for a giving report for 2007. The report detailed what each family unit has given so far this year, only without the names attached. All I saw was what each family unit here at ACC has given, but I have no idea who gave what.

I asked my wife, Nicki, to do some number crunching from this report while we were out driving. At one point, she said, “This is unbelievable.” She found our family on the report. There are no names on the report, but Nicki was able to find us because she knows what we give each week.

I asked her what was so unbelievable. She said, “We are the fourth highest givers in the church.”

I struggled with whether or not to share this with you because I know how this could be badly taken out of context, but here’s why I decided to throw it out there. Because this is a practical example of how hard it is for those with bigger banks to break them and give generously. We’re the fourth highest giving family in the entire church, but there’s no way on God’s green earth that we are the fourth wealthiest family in the entire church. No way. Don’t get me wrong. I make a great salary. My family is provided for. But we’re not the fourth richest family in the church. And yet we are the fourth highest givers because those with bigger banks find them very difficult to break.

And here’s the other reason I’m sharing this. Because I feel like bragging. But not in the way that you think. I’m not bragging about what we give. I can’t brag about it because it has nothing to do with Nicki or me. It has everything to do with God. So I’m boasting in the Lord. I’m boasting about what God has done in our lives. We didn’t always tithe. We didn’t always give the way we should have to the work of the Lord. But in his grace, God has brought us to the point where it is now a joy to give. And it’s my prayer that we can continue to grow in this; that we can continue to learn how to give more. See, it’s not a monthly bill to pay. It is a joyful expression of worship. There is freedom in that. There is peace in that. And I want you to experience that in your life, too.

This is not a competition about who can give the most. It’s not about the amount. It’s about the percentage. It’s about making a sacrifice to bring a tithe to the Lord.

If this is your church, if this is where you worship, if this is where you get fed, you need to be bringing the tithe. God has challenged us to break the bank and bring the tithe. But this thing that we’re talking about today, this idea that it’s not my money, that throws a new spin on it. It’s really hard to bring God 10% of my money. That’s tough. In fact, I’d say that’s almost impossible. There’s no way I’m going to bring God 10% of my money.

But it’s not my money, is it? It’s all who’s? It’s all God’s. So when God calls me to tithe, he’s simply asking for me to give him 10% of what’s already his. Essentially, when I tithe I’m not giving. I’m returning. I’m returning to God 10% of what he has blessed me with. I’m giving God 1/10th of what is already his.

And watch what happens when I tithe, when I bring a tenth to the Lord. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. My hands are completely open. I can’t grab and hold on for myself. My hands are open, because it’s all God’s. The tithe. The tenth. It is a representative of the whole because it’s all God’s.

In Acts 4, no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own. Instead they understood the principle that God is the source. Everything I have is a resource. God is the source. Everything I have is a resource.

We live in the most materialistic culture on the planet, but God called has called us out to be different. God wants to usher in his kingdom while the world is chasing their thingdom. You like that? I know it’s cheesy, but it’s good. Sometimes cheese is good.

While our culture is all about getting, God has called his people to be giving. It’s not your money anyway. It’s all God’s. And if God has blessed you, then he expects you to be a blessing. His expectation is that you will be generous; that you will use the financial and material blessings that you’ve been given as resources to finance the work of God.

And even though there’s hardly anybody in this room who would argue with that, most of us aren’t living it out. We believe this principle is true, but it doesn’t have any practical application in our lives because we’re not returning the tithe to God.

Instead, our lives look a lot like this video

I love the last line. “Dude, he brought the pie.” Of course he brought the pie. It’s his pie. All of it. But he hands us the knife and he lets us decide how we will divvy up his pie.

What kind of piece is God getting from you? The time has come to decide. For three weeks now, God has been challenging us to bring the tithe today.

Just like Mary brought an extravagant gift to Jesus like we talked about in week 1 of this series. We bring an extravagant gift to him in the form of a tithe. Maybe some of you are preparing to give beyond a tithe. God will bless you for your extravagant gift.

Last week we said that our money confirms what we value and reveals what we trust. Today we’re taking a stand, saying that we value God. We value his mission. And we trust him to bless our lives when we give with generosity. We trust that, when we take a risk and bring the tithe, God will come through like he promised.

If you believe it, bring it. Bring the tithe. God gives us permission to test him in this area of our live, so do it. Test him. Give generously. Bring the tithe and see what God will do. Do you believe that he always keeps his promises? Well he has promised to bless you if you bless him with a tithe. Do you believe that God is all-powerful; that he is able to follow through on his promise? If you believe it, bring it.

Bring God the tithe. Bring him that piece of the pie. We’re collecting our offering today in pie plates. Remember, he brought the pie. It’s his pie, but he’s allowing you to slice it up. What kind of piece of you going to serve to God this morning?

Do you believe it? Bring it. Bring the tithe.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: LIES, Acts 4, Exodus 36, giving, money, tithe, tithing,