In Search of Company V, Company Finances

John 14, keep your Bibles close at hand this morning, let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In this one simple verse, believe that Jesus lays down the two most foundational issues that every believer must settle in their heart. Trusting God and trusting each other. Trust in God and trust in me. It's profound, isn't it? So simple that I'm fearful that many of us overlook it, but when you just strip away all the baggage of religion, you take away all the forms and all the way one group worships and another group does their thing. Bottom line, folks, it is, can you trust God? Do you trust the Lord? Do you really trust Him to keep all of His promises as they relate to you? I suppose for most of us, the trustworthiness and faithfulness and love of God really came alive when we first took the step of recognizing the fact that we needed a Savior. I wonder if you remember that day. For some of you it was just recently, for many of you it was years and years ago, but you came to the place where you realized that you were not going to make it in terms of your relationship with God and you weren't going to make it to heaven and you didn't know what to do but you cried out to the Lord and you called upon His name and what happened? He answered. The blood of Jesus was sufficient to lift the guilt and you discovered that He loved you and He wanted so much to show Himself. That was the first time you experienced trust. Then as you went on, it became increasingly clear to you that His word could be trusted. Psalm 18 verse 30 said that thy word is true and you can trust the Lord's word in every arena of life and you discovered that this book was not just a little thing you pulled off the shelf when you went to church, but in it were the very kernels upon which life could be built, the foundation stones as it were, of relationship and of marriage and of family raising and of finances and of health and of even guidance for your career and where God would have you to go. Jesus said in John 10 verse 35, My word, Scripture, cannot be broken and you discovered that God could be trusted. In my own life, now that I have transcended another tremendous barrier of age, I'm discovering that it's true that God has been faithful in my life. You know, I don't know about you, but it's a healthy thing every once in a while just to back up and see how faithful God's been. It's not that there haven't been struggles, but I look back and I see how God took me out of a rather confused religious background and let me find Christ in my teenage years and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where I was going to go to college and then how He led me to a particular school where He sent somebody. It wasn't a Christian college. It was a very secular college. Not even a Christian fellowship group on campus. He sent someone to love me and to show me how to walk with Christ. You've heard me tell that story many times. And then He sent me my wife and blessed me with a marriage in Christ. And then He sent me on to school, out of the military service, which was a strange combination. And I ended up serving the Lord in youth ministry and then I can just declare his faithfulness as eight years ago a small band of men started this church. I want to say loud and clear on tape God is faithful. He's been faithful in my life. He can be trusted. He can be trusted I find dear ones when I least deserve it. A number of months ago someone who I would describe as a friend of this congregation, not a member, only attended infrequently, suddenly passed away unexpectedly. A man in his 50s. I was called upon at the very last minute to do a funeral service for this man. In fact another church was involved and it was one of those kinds of things where the family wanted me to be involved. As I recall it was on a Monday morning. How many of you know Monday morning is not my best morning? And I remember going to this service and I was really not prepared. I hadn't spent time with the Lord over the whole thing like I needed to and to top it off when I was getting ready to go, you know what I did? I clicked myself really good and I stuck a piece of tissue right there you know and I was late for the service and I went into this funeral service mainly populated with people that I didn't know all that well. Many, many people who don't know Christ. I knew that and I walked in and I think my you know like I don't know that I had the proper attire on and I get up and I was kind of nervous and I said Lord I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how this is going to go. I'm concerned. To top it off I stood up there with that silly tissue in my hand. I didn't even know. I didn't even realize it till I was done. Mighty warrior you know. God met that little group of about a hundred people and as I gave a simple presentation of the gospel in the midst of that message about a dozen people, some of whom today are fellowshipping with us here in this church, came to Christ. I didn't deserve that. I can't tell you I prayed and fasted and sought God. I just know God was faithful. Beyond that dear ones I want to say this morning I'm learning to trust you and you're learning to trust me. You know the Bible tells us that the greatest commandment Jesus said is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul mind and strength and thy neighbor as thyself. 1st Corinthians 13 7 says that love always trusts. One of the most difficult things in the world of Christianity is trusting other people. I received a lovely letter here just a few weeks ago from a family. In fact the folks are here this morning worshiping with us and they say every so often I just want to write to express our thanks to you and they say some personal things. Even though we don't always understand all that goes on we trust you and the elders as you seek the Lord on our behalf. You see those kinds of things dear ones in a world that's chewing people up where suspicion and fear and defensiveness and protectiveness and isolation are the the marking words of our culture. It's wonderful to have relationships where you learn to trust because of Christ. You're wondering I'm sure what does all this have to do with the topic I announced last week company finances. What does it have to do with money? Well in my own humble estimation dear ones money giving money has way more to do with trust than it has to do with dollars and cents. It has way more to do with where you really believe God is towards you and where we are towards one another. That's what giving is really all about. Can God be trusted to fulfill the word that he promised he would fulfill to you? Can you really trust him or is he on some of his promises in arrears? We're not talking about money as much as we're talking about faith. Faith in the Word of God, faith that's based with a rational mind and built on a track record of God never failing one time. God has told us in his Word that if you trust me I will take care of you. He says very clearly you may want to jot some of these scriptures down Luke 6 38. Give and it shall be given to you. Press down shaken together running over the Lord said. By the way I love the smiles that I'm seeing on this your faces right now. Look at your neighbor see if they're smiling. 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 verse 8 just take a look at all these scriptures later on Psalm or Proverbs 3 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with the first fruits of all your increase and see and see if your barns are not filled overflowing and your wine vats the pouring over. See God says do you really believe me when it comes to money? Oh I can believe you Lord. So you say do you really believe the Lord will keep his promises to you and show himself faithful? The testimony of hundreds of people here in this room today would be God has never failed me in his supply. I was having breakfast with one of our elders this week and we were just kind of reminiscing over the last eight plus years of the ministry. You know we started with very little folks. When North Way started there wasn't somebody who was up there just you know channeling some money into our coffers to get us going. I remember so clearly the first time the elders that time called the Servants Council met and made a commitment to support my wife and I as we were the founding pastor of this church. Eight other men many of them were in their 20s at that time if you recall. We're not talking big-time executives here folks we're talking about people with you know entry-level kind of jobs and they said they said well we believe the Lord's called you to be the pastor and they got off on their own and they said and they came back and said and we'll support you. I looked around the room you know and it was like in varying stages of oh God what am I doing here you know but do you know something I can say without any hesitation the Lord has always been and as I talk with this elder we began to share story after story of how God stepped in right when we needed it. Those first couple years weren't all that easy but can I say to you as I look and I think back over all eight families involved in that initial founding every one of them is still walking in the blessing of God isn't that right Doug? Still seeing the Lord do things not always been easy but God's been faithful. Now the time that we have this morning I just want to share with you some things that God says in his Word about giving that every believer every one of you here today needs to know and put to the test. I believe you're going to be helped by this if you're willing your heart is open to hear. The foundational teaching and all the Bible about giving is the tithe. The tithe is God's foundational building block of stewardship in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. The tithe is giving simply 10%. You all heard me say before that the Hebrew word tithe is defined as 10% it's not 5% or 20% it's 10% that's what the word means. The Bible says that before the law came Abraham gave his tithe to Melchizedek. You can read about it in Genesis chapter 14 and Hebrews chapter 7 old and new catch this now old and new and then Jesus said the tithe was right in Luke 11 42 and Matthew 23 23 the tithe was always 10% and it was always given first. Now why do we need to tithe? Well I have four reasons that I'll urge you to jot down. Why do we tithe? Number one we tithe because it is a tangible expression of God's ownership of all things. How many of you believe the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof? You see you can say that and it doesn't even test one bit of your faith. You want to know when it's going to test your faith? When you sit down and write your tithe. Leviticus 27 30 says the tithe is holy unto the Lord and when you give your tithe you're 10%. You see you're saying God I don't only just say I believe it it's all yours. I want to encourage you today if you've never done that think about what God says to those who don't tithe. Listen now. How many of you here have ever been ripped off? Good we've got something in common today. I've heard people say there's nothing more dehumanizing than to go home and find that your house well remember that your house had been rifled into and your drawers upset and your furniture overturned nothing you feel naked and exposed when you're robbed. And I want you to turn to Malachi chapter 3 I warned you to keep your Bibles nearby. Turn to Matthew if you don't know where Malachi is turn to Matthew and back up about one page or two would you? Alright Malachi chapter 3 verse 8 the Lord says this look at it. Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask how do we rob you? In tithes and offerings you are under a curse the whole nation of you because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Dear ones it's one thing to cheat a little bit with the IRS it's another thing to rip off somebody but I want to just share with you that I believe it's a whole other thing to rob God and I pray it's a sobering thought for you. Number two our tithe is a tangible expression of worship. You know how many of you here love your wife man? And how many wives love your husband? Now do you know every once in a while and those of you who have neither you love people as well your parents your friends and so on. How many know every once in a while it's a good thing to demonstrate that? You know it's a good thing children give your mom something in Mother's Day it's good and I want to say we can say God we love you you know we the Lord loves it when we spend 15 minutes in worship and sing Lord I I love you more than anything but not enough to give you my tithe. And the tithe is an expression of the substance of your life given over to the Lord in worship. Number three the tithe is also a tangible expression of our obedience. The Lord says honor me. The Lord commands in Luke chapter 16 Jesus says if you can't be trusted to deal with your financial matters how can you possibly be trusted to deal with spiritual riches? Jesus said give and it should be given. And finally this one really got to me as I thought about it this week. Number four the tithe is a tangible expression of honor. Almost ten years ago it was nine years ago exactly my wife and I had the privilege of going over to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary and we were going to meet a man who had set up part of the trip for us and had gone out of his way to make a wonderful trip for us and we wanted to take a gift to him. We wanted to show him how much we appreciated what he'd done for us. Now I want you to know I didn't go down to Kmart. I didn't go down to some discount store and pick up something. I thought what can I get that's really nice. It doesn't have to necessarily be big and flashy but really nice. We thought a lot about that because when I walked up and met this man for the first time and handed him a gift I didn't want to be a piece of junk. I want him to say wow thank you. How many of you know sometimes we give God just a little bit of junk that we find left in our wallets. You know whatever's left at the end of the month maybe if we feel good we'll give God you know we'll tip him a little bit for all he did. How about if you treated the IRS that way? Well gee you know sorry folks I didn't feel led to give this this quarter you know and could you imagine the RSA oh that's okay we love you anyhow. We love you it's alright. Malachi chapter 1 you don't need to turn there but you cannot note it and mark it down. The Lord says you dishonor me with your blemish sacrifices and those things which you withhold from me. You dishonor me. 1st Samuel 2 verse 30 the Lord says this those who honor me I will honor. If you want to be honored by God honor him and I pray that you see that as the Lord gives us these scriptures on tithing they're very clear. Look at the next part of Malachi 3 look at verse 10 he says this bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. The Lord says here's the command bring it into the storehouse. People get hung up they say what's the storehouse? Well I don't know a single scholar or Bible teacher even on television of any repute that says that the storehouse is anything other than the place where you receive your regular feeding and care the local church. You say well pastor you you have a reason to say that it's because your church. I'm telling you it's because I really believe with all my heart that if you're being fed and cared for here this is where your tithe belongs. If you're being fed and cared for in another church you're just visiting a day take it to your church. You don't pay at Arby's if you eat at McDonald's and it's very deceptive. People say well you know I just feel led to give my tithe some of it here and give some of my tithe. You say well that's not God leading you. Why do you say that? Because he told you what to do with it. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then he says now here's the part that you want to read. Look what he says. Test me in this says the Lord and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Now I want you to hear that. You know this is the only time that I can think of where the Lord specifically says hey put me to the test on this one. See if you really trust me. Put me to the test. The word floodgates or the the picture of that is those giant giant doors that you'd see over a dam that when you crank them up you know the water came rushing out underneath. The Lord says that's the kind of blessing that I'll pour out upon you. And look note the next part of the verse. Verse 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you. How many feel sometimes that you work and you work and you work and you never get ahead. Let me see your hand. Alright I know what you are. One of the reasons is there are devourers out there. One of those devourers is 18% interest. There's a lot of devourers out there. There's a lot of unwise things that we can invest in. And the Bible says that Satan wants to steal kill and destroy. You don't have to be mystical to understand that. The Bible says Satan is he's roaring looking around for someone to destroy. And the Lord says if you learn to tithe I will rebuke the devourer. I will stand and say no more. Get away from this one. Can I say to you today you might you might be reading the Bible you might be praying but if you're not tithing you are not in position to receive the full protection of God. Well that's you say well boy that's really I've never heard you say that before. Well the Lord says right here I'll do it for you. If by faith and here's what you know faith has to be applied. Lord I'm looking for you to rebuke the devourer on my behalf. Go on and test me says the Lord. There's so many rationalizations when it comes to tithing folks. One person will say well that's Old Testament. I'm in the New Testament. I've never met a person that said that it's giving more than they did in the Old Testament. Grace exceeds law. I've heard someone say well you know I give quite a bit but that 10% you don't know how much that is. Can I tell you that I have found and most people would say that the 90% that you have left after your tithe goes farther with God's blessing than the hundred percent. You say well I can't see how I can do it. I'm just barely meeting my bills and I want to say to you there are a lot of people in our church who are not wealthy. A lot of people who are even out of work. I want to say to you today the beginning point of getting out of that bondage. Learn to tithe. Get God's blessing on your life. Don't try to manage it on your own. You see the issue is trusting God. And I have a question for those of you who say well I just can't trust him to honor my tithe. How can you trust him to save your soul if you can't trust him with a few bucks in your wallet? How can you trust him to cross into heavenly habitations when you can't even trust him to provide the food that you need to eat? It doesn't add up. How can you trust him to answer your prayers and to heal you and to give you strength and wisdom when you can't trust him just to take care of a few little dollars? I must confess to you that there have been times when I've been very upset with people in this church. If I discover that they don't tithe and they've been part of this church for some period of time. What upsets me is that I feel like in a very perhaps innocent way but nonetheless destructive. You are saying well I'll just put the burden of ministry back on you. I'll bring my kids to the children's ministry. I'll come and listen to the music and praise God and worship. But you pay for it. Because you see the tithe is ministry. Bottom line the tithe is what pays the bills and gets the equipment and provides the curriculum and provides all the necessary staffing and personnel and all the communication that we have to do. And if you enjoy all that then you should help share in the burden. But more than that can I say to you more than being upset I have to say I feel sorry. In my spirit I feel more sorrow because what I'm discovering is those people when they sit down when they sit down with their checkbook when they sit down with their stack of bills when they sit down with all of their investment plans and all of their retirement questions when they sit down they sit down by themselves. It's not them and God. Because the tithe is the beginning point of getting God involved in your finance. And so I sorrow for those people and I say why don't you learn to trust God? Because he's trustworthy. You can stop tithing when God fails you. You can stop tithing. Dear ones where are you with this? Say well Jay I'd like to but I just can't. Oh yes you can. And God will honor your step of faith. You say well you know really honestly Jay it's this storehouse thing. It's this storehouse thing. I'm just not sure. I support missionaries and I support TV ministries and I support inner-city things and you know and plus Jimmy Baker proved that you know you leaders are really you're susceptible to lots of problems. And I want to say something and I mean this with all my heart. Jesus said it in this way. Let me paraphrase it for you Luke 16 11. If you can't trust someone in handling worldly wealth how can you possibly trust them to guide your spiritual destiny? If you can't trust this leadership with your worldly wealth then find a place where you can. Because the far more important matters dear ones are your eternal destiny, the spiritual guidance and money is much less significant. And one more thing even if the leadership proves unfaithful God won't. I want you to know the people who gave to Jim Baker in good faith are being honored by God. And God will deal with Jim Baker and whatever else if indeed he was guilty. I'm not making any statement about that. God will not be unfaithful. One last thing about principles of giving. You see beyond the tithe we have the freedom then to give offerings. And you'll hear me say most Sunday mornings tithes and offerings. Where tithes are for everyone offerings are for the mature. Offerings are for the ones that it can discern the Lord saying I want you to give to them. I want you to support this. I want you to just turn it in a little bit more and find a way to give this amount over here and over there. It isn't coercion. I repudiate the time that someone tries to give pressure giving tactics. That's not the Lord. The Lord does not need someone to pressure you. If the Holy Spirit wants you to give you'll sense that nudging. And the mature are able to discern that. Even within our companies I love the letters that I get when I hear about a company member who said you know my home group supplied $300 to help us over a financial crunch we were in. They took up and you know what they don't get any deduction for that. They just gave out of love and out of care and concern and they gave. And those little offerings sometimes an offering will come on a Wednesday night just the Lord says I want you to give to this. And it's between you and God and dear ones the blessing is between you and God. The more anonymous you can be the more blessed you're going to be from God. I want to say this too. The Lord's prompted over 350 families in this church to give free will offerings above the tithe to the advancement of our vision through Praily to a Promise. Many people sacrifice. Some I know gave up new cars. Some gave up additions to their homes. Some are not going on vacation this summer because they heard the Lord say give an offering. Some are going to do that today in response to the banquet we had last Sunday. And it's not easy. How many of you know it isn't always easy because when you give it may not be there but it's worth it. It's worth it. I have to say this week how many of you couldn't help but take notice of all the insanity about the lottery. What were people really trying to do? I want to thank all of you who promised me that if you hit we were going to get this great windfall. I have letters. I will not read them but I have letters today from those who promised if you were the one you'd buy the land. You'd even put up the building. I mean you'd do the whole thing. I have letters. I won't read them. I have them. And you know the implicit was would you pray for me. That's what they were saying. But really what people were doing dear ones is they were looking for my own opinion. They were paying for the privilege of dreaming. And for those few days or hours that you had a ticket you might, might. There was more. I read that the odds were better that you would jump out of a plane and both parachutes failed than to win a lottery. One in nine million. That's what that is. Why dream? Why, why waste your time doing stuff like that when you can take Almighty God at His word and learn to tithe, learn to give, and learn to be blessed with a sure thing. It's a sure thing. God would bless you. As I conclude this message let me read scripture for you. Nahum 1 7. The Lord cares for those who trust Him. Psalm 32 10. The Lord and His unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts Him. Proverbs 28 25. He who trusts in the Lord will prosper. Romans 9 33. The one who trusts in Him will never, listen, never be put to shame. I'm going to end this message with a very practical challenge. A number of you here today have tithed for years and you would say, you would stand up and say God's been faithful. A number of you do not. It is an embarrassment, but really more a grief to me that the best that we can tell, less than half the people in our church tithe. I believe God's going to change that. I'm going to ask you, this is April the 30th, tomorrow is May the 1st, it's a new month. I'm going to ask you to consider a challenge in your life. Try the Lord. Put Him to the test. Try a 30 day tithe commitment. Try it for 30 days. Say, okay, I've heard the word of God. I want to believe it. I don't know if I can. I want to urge you. Try God for 30 days. Bring your tithe in. Maybe you're not working right now. Say, well, you want me to tithe my unemployment check? You tithe. Whatever your increase is, tithe it for 30 days. The end of May, re-evaluate and see if God honored His word to you. I challenge you with that. You say, well, I'm already tithing, what should I do? Then I say, thank you, praise God, and let's keep going together and let's listen to the Lord for those special times when He wants to bless you as you give an offering and the Lord returns great blessing on your life. I believe it church and I'm going to ask you to stand right now as we pray together and put His covering over this time. We need each other, dear ones, and the encouragement that we bring. Let's join hands as we pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the sense of your spirit in this sermon today because, Lord, it is a message that I know you've held me accountable to give. And, Lord, I already anticipate the great blessing that will be upon those who take a step of faith. And I ask in Jesus' name that everyone here, within the sound of my voice, whether on tape or here in this service today, would have the courage to trust God and to trust our brothers and sisters in all these things. In Jesus' name.