Sermon – “Tithing Our Time”

Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the al-tars—from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh—until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession. 2 And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions, each man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to serve, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD. 3 The king also appointed a portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings: for the morning and evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and the New Moons and the set feasts, as it is written in the Law of the LORD. 4 Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the LORD. 5 As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God they laid in heaps. 7 In the third month they began laying them in heaps, and they finished in the seventh month. 8 And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and His people Israel. 9 Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. 10 And Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the LORD has blessed His people; and what is left is this great abundance.”

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”[b] 10 Now may[c] He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

24 The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.

11 Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.

God is good and all the time God is good a man this morning a message out titled tithing our time so before I can speak about the tithe in our time we have to understand the principle of tithing you know and share with care and the other day I don’t know that I’ve actually had an entire message dedicated to tie the I may have touched on it just briefly and and passing another message is so and I believe we have a lot of faithful tithers here so but just bear with me. So my first message on tithing so I want to address the principle behind tithing to get to the point of tithing our time because tithing is all about trust you might was and be that spiritual message but tithing is a spiritual thing is about trust do we trust God enough to give our ties so before I begin for a bit of the scripture reading many years ago we were a group of men from Holy Cross and some others went down to a Promise Keepers event and it was at the old R F K stadium and there were fifty five thousand men in that stadium and you know I think of the praise and worship time you know it was just so moving to see that many men praising God and worshipping God and we had they had wonderful speakers and wonderful musicians erred at the lead to praise and worship but it one point when they got ready to take up the offering I don’t remember who the speaker was I’m thinking it was Bill McHarg McCarthy the coach he said Now man he said Now comes the point of service he said he says I want you to give from the heart he said I want you to reach into the wallet of the man in front of you and give like you always wanted to give. This a thought of that this morning you know if we gave this like you know the government house spend our money if we could just region of the pocket of the other person give. Like we always wanted to give when to be easy to tie. OK so let’s get into this tidy Second Chronicles thirty one verses one through ten. Now when all this was finished all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Juda and broke the sacred pillars and in pieces cut down the wooden images and threw down the high places and the altars from all Juda Benjamin Ephram M. and S. and if so they had utterly destroyed them all then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities every man to his possession and Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and Levites according to the divisions each man according to His service the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings to serve to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord the King also appointed a portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings for the morning and evening burnt offerings to burnt offerings for the Sabbath and the new moons and the set feast as it is written in the law of the Lord. Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priest in the Levites that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord I’m going to pause for a moment if you understand if you knew but when the children of Israel there were twelve tribes in every tribe except for the Levi tribe was given a portion of the land that they could go out they could do that they could have their farms their livestock their the way to support themselves the Levites were not given a portion of the land so therefore the people were to give a TA Eve to support the Levites because they were to devote themselves to the Lord and only to the Lord they were to take care of the sacrifices the temple the Serb read all these things they were supposed to take care of so how could they do that without the lands to prefer to take care of themselves to support themselves the people. To give a tide to take care of those who were devoted to God. Verse five and as soon as a command was circulated the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of grain and wind oil and honey and of all the produce of the field and they brought it and abundantly they brought in abundantly the tide of everything and the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Juda brought to tie the oxen sheep also the Thai the holy things which are consecrated to the Lord their God They laid in heat and the third month they began laying them and he and they finished in the seventh month and when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heap they bless the Lord and His people Israel that Hezekiah question the priest and the Levites concerning the Heat’s and Azariah the chief priest from the houses answered him and said since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the lower We have had enough to eat and have plenty of left for the Lord has blessed his people and what is left is this great abundance Amen May god add his blessing so that here in the reading of His Holy Word let us by our heads in prayer Father God we thank you and praise you we thank you for your presence in our lives we thank you for your holy word that reveals your truth your word that reveals your relationship with mankind and specially your relationship with Israel and father how you worked in moving and bless the people when they were faithful and Father God may you bless us with your spirit today may your presence be here may your spirit speak to our hearts in our minds that we might receive what you have for us today father and we just give you the honor glory in Jesus’ name amen. I share that and you’re going to want to was a whole lot in there about tithing but there was because of people tied the very thing but what I found so I’m a. Raising as I search this out study this is so amazing that King has a coyote was so faithful to the Lord and I say that is amazing because he was one of the son of one of the most wicked Kang’s that Israel ever had a. King has a Kyra for twenty nine years over Judah he was very zealous for the Lord more zealous than all of his predecessors during his reign the prophet Isaiah and Mica ministered in Judah but he had his work cut out for him because as as I said his father was a wicked king his father a has once had travelled to Damascus and he saw a famous heathen altar that he had mired so much that he had it copied and sent to Jerusalem to the High Priest your Raia and he commanded it to be put in the Holy Temple. And whenever he returned to Drusilla himself he himself offered sacrifices only altar and he forced the priest to offer they only sacrifices on the altar in the Holy Temple that he then altar so he was a wicked king if you remember as he was married to jazz a bell very wicked but praise the Lord Hezekiah did not follow and his father’s footsteps he Boley reopening cleanse the temple his father one point had nailed the door shut he had to physically remove the nails and open the temple back up he removed the pagan altars in the idols he really destroyed the temples to the false gods the bronze serpent even that Moses had made in the desert he had to destroy it not because it was even wicked because the people had made it an idol so it had to be destroyed. The Levitical priesthood was reinstated under Hezekiah his rule the Passover was reinstituted as a national. Holiday under his reforms revival came to Judah. Oh that we would have leaders today that would pass reforms that would bring revival to our land that they would remove the wickedness from the land they would remove the idols from the land but we can remove the addles from our lives we don’t need to government the past reform to move it do we have idols in our lives that we need to remove. We want revival to come to our life let’s remove the idols. Cain has a part has a coyote put God first in everything he did and God prospered him. Hezekiah held fast to the Lord and He did not stop following him he kept the commandments of the Lord given through Moses and the Lord was blessed Lord blessed him as he was successful in everything that he undertook. The people on Hezekiah his day or eager to be able to worship the Lord their God. They were eager to be able to bring sacrifices and offerings into the Lord and they brought it abundantly verse ten was a key verse is a since the people began to bring offerings into the house of the Lord we have had enough to eat and plenty to left for the Lord has blessed his people and what is left is this great abundance the Lord blessed his people because of their generous heart. Malakai three verses eight through ten reveals the blessing of. Trusting God enough to enough to tie. Will a man rob God yet you have robbed me but you say in what way have we robbed you in ties and offerings says the Lord you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation bring all the tide into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me. Now in this says the Lord of host repeat it try me now in this says the LORD of hosts if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and poor out for you sets blessing that there will not be enough room to receive it how I loue you. The book of mysteries a book that Judith was written and shared it told the Karen Abela told everybody about so I’ve been reading it while it had a story in there one day and it was about well let me just tell you a little bit there’s a student in every day the teacher takes him out or shares. One very very interesting topic or information with him so one day the teacher takes a student out to the foot of the mountain the net is a pond of water there are a pool of water and he says now I want you to he said Smile way smile but he says no no no I want you to bend out over and look into the water and smile and he did so he said OK now I want you to bend out over the water and have a face of anger so he did me so I don’t see the meaning in this he says now I want you to take your hand and act like you’re giving sowing and he did he says Now take your hand and like your drawing back and he did he says what’s the meaning of this he says when you’ve been hour over the water and smiled What did you see. The man in the reflection smiling back at you. Think about it that it sink in whenever you looked out in the face of anger What did you see the man looking back at you was angry but whenever you gave the man in the water was giving back but whenever you took the man the water was taking do you see the teaching there whenever we give it will be given back whenever we smile. It will be smile back upon. Traditionally speaking a Thai is taking ten percent of your wages and giving unto the Lord we know the New Old Testament times there tithing may have been ten percent of the crop to harvest ten percent of the livestock if they were shepherds or whatever their career may have been they may not have had cash in their back pocket to reach into and take out. But here’s a way that we should look at the idea of the principle of tithing we should not think that we are giving God ten percent of what is ours. Because my friends it all belongs to God. It all belongs to him we should look at it as God’s allowing me to keep ninety percent of what it is what he has given me that is his. How to you how gracious he is because one hundred percent of a belongs to him when we give a tie we should not give it grudgingly. Because if we’re going to give it grudgingly if we every pay day we like now I’ve got to give I got to give ten percent as the God when you might as well keep it in your pocket. Because if you’re given a grudge and he doesn’t want it we should give it willingly and faithfully but whenever we do tie we are confessing that all we have belongs to Him We are confessing that we trust the Lord our God to enable us to do more with the ninety percent that we have then the one hundred percent that we would have if we didn’t give it to him that’s what we do and we tied we’re confessing that we trust the Lord our God to bless the ninety percent more than we would have been blessed with the one hundred percent. So I want to share a personal story many years ago care and I were young we had children and you know whenever you have children you don’t have much money because some reason then little. Farts like to eat. And they want clothes and they even want sneakers and shoes for their feet kids are expensive but we love them but kids are expensive so I don’t have to tell you whenever you’re young and you’re raising your family and you have a home and you got payments you don’t have a lot of money to spare I should say we got by but we didn’t have a lot of money to spare. But we went and bought a new van so the van was in one nine hundred eighty eight tells you about what year this was. And but that’s on we were going to church and I may have shared bits of the story but bear with me I’m assured again at that time we know we were going to church we were young believers but the Holy Spirit began to convict me about Toddy. And so I spoke to Karen and I talked about it ness and we really need to give more so I’m going to say we quadruple what I had been put in the offering plate but it still wasn’t anywhere near tidy so that tells you how little that was put in to begin with so I started putting quadruple more in what I was in but the conviction didn’t stop because I wasn’t being faithful to what God called me to do so we talked about it some more and like you know Lord this is not very good timing we just bought this band. You know the timing is not good here. You know usually we did have sort of a budget we put enough in the checking account to make sure every bill was covered you know it’s easy to do the math you figure out what your bills are for the month and you divide it all up and you know how much you’ve got to put in every pay to cover the bills so you take the risk that you’re spending money and if there’s none left guess what you don’t go to eat you don’t spend because you don’t have but you make sure the bills are paid so that’s the way we operated and use We’ve been paid it came there wasn’t much left or anything left because. Spend it you know just wait isn’t you got kids as I said so been a way Lord the time is not very good but he kept speak and so on and we had to tie and then I felt him say you know. Trust me in this try me now on this let’s try in see if the Lord can bless us and help us to still be able to pay this car payment now and still make it through to the next pay so we tried it and guess what the Lord our God did. We had more money left over at the end of the pay period then before so God was able to do more with that ninety percent we were able to do more with the ninety percent than we were with the one hundred percent God blessed it he can and will bless it. He is faithful. Found a little story a man may named Mike Herman shared this story about how givers receive Mike had been going to professional baseball games for nearly twenty eight years and he had long to get a souvenir baseball but after nearly twenty eight years not one foul ball not one homerun was hit in his direction often he would even go for batting practice and you know we’ve been batting practice watch but in practice whenever we want to Altoona curve game and the kids are down there throws a ball throws a ball you know of course they just keep right on they smile and they don’t throw you a ball Well that’s what happened the Mike you know after twenty eight years well one day they’re watching the St Louis Cardinals it batting practice could get there early for the game where there’s a little five year old boy there named James well who James one of the souvenir ball to so when you go to batting practice players are kind of close to the fence down there so Mike’s help a little James pronounce the names you know go to asked so and so for a ball say go down again they just smile and wave at him but no ball so after about twenty minutes of this. Mike said I’ll tell you what I’m going to do James if I catch a ball foul ball he says I’m going to give it to you because Mike thought well surely I’m safe the promise that because you know twenty years I’ve never caught a ball. Where you probably know what happened five minutes later my catches the ball. And yes he did give it a little James and he said it amazing how the Lord wait so we’re ready to give something away before we get it. Twenty eight years he waited whenever he was ready to give it to somebody else the guy God gave it to me and that knee. Well maybe God’s waiting for us. To be willing to give something away before we get it. Second Corinthians nine versus six to eleven but this I say he who so sparingly will also reap sparingly he was so as bountiful bountifully was a rebound to fully So let each one give as he purposes in his heart not grudgingly or of necessity for love for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always have also efficiency in all things. You may have in abundance for every good work as it is written He has dispersed abroad he has given to the poor His righteousness indoors forever now may he was suppose he who supplies seed to the SO are and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have soon and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are in ridged in everything for all liberality which causes Thanksgiving through us to our God. OK so I shared all this information about tithing to say this the same idea the same prince of. Behind tithing our finances are the first fruits should apply to our time. It should apply to our time. Because we are here is we be long to him or time is not our own or bodies are not our own. Friends we belong to him Psalms twenty four verse one says the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness the world and those that do well there in so the earth is the Lord and all that dwell Where there in I have pretty sure that everyone here everyone who may be watching on the web are there are part of those that dwell there in because if we are on the earth we are the lords the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it so what does that say we are here is we belong to him first Corinthians six thousand nine hundred twenty or do you not know that your body is a temple the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your room for you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your speared which are God’s. Bishop Gary couple weeks ago at our Wednesday morning Bible study prayer meeting where usually share is like a devotional and he shared a little scripture from the in my and I don’t remember if he was reading from Maz Walter Harold frigidly one of the other but anyway the thought for that morning was. Tying the people I want to share from the a Maya Chapter eleven verses one and two. Now the leaders of the people well to Jerusalem the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city and nine tents were to dwell in other cities and the people blessed all the men. Who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. Just to give you a little background the wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem in the in my eyes day had been in ruins you know the children of Israel had been carried captive and many years later they were able to come back with thirteen years prior to this time with Nehemiah as or a had returned to help guide to people concerning their spiritual needs but the wall still lay in ruins they were tore down and they were in a heap so they had to remove the rubble and then began to build it back up. So many people were reluctant to return to the city they felt that they’d be vulnerable to attack so they didn’t want to return so you know some people were there but not many so God had prepared and position Nehemiah to accomplish one of the one of the Bible’s most impossible task Nehemiah was just the common man. That happen by God’s plan to be in a very unique position. He was he had a very successful and secure job he was king or exert sees cup bearer so one morning he comes before the king whenever he learned after he had learned about the state of the wall around Jerusalem His heart was broken so his countenance was down and he standing before the king in the King questions what’s wrong I’m going to this is my paraphrase version what’s wrong with you today I can tell something’s wrong and he shares about the wall around his city his home the place that he loves so the king allowed him to leave and go and rebuild the wall. Fifty two days. And that is under stress under duress because of there were many they didn’t want the wall rebuilt so they. Had swords they had to have guards in fifty two days they were able to rebuild the wall surrounding Jerusalem. But after the walls were built rebuilt the city secured there was still another problem. Whereas all the people. There was very few people in the city. So that’s what I read to you. They cast lots to determine who would go back to the city one in ten would go back they had a tie that the people to go back to Jerusalem and that’s why I said together the morning that we should tie their time they tied the people so one family out of ten would go back and live in a city of course we you all know me them accountable I would be likely to replace that with them into the city it’s a nice place to go visit but I don’t want to live there. But one in ten families went back to live in the holy city of Jerusalem they tie the people. So they really had to tie their time if we can trust that God will help us do more with less when it comes to our finances can we trust him that he can do the same thing with our time that if we give him ten percent of our time there will be able to do more then if we would not have given him that time. You know there are twenty four hours in a day every day all of it belongs to God. But we often fail to dedicate any of it specifically to him. A specific time for him not know you’re going to say wait I’m not awake twenty four hours a day. I know that you’re right most of us or awake however for about sixteen hours a day only average so that’s simple math folks sixteen hours is NOT hundred sixty Minutes so one tenth of that is ninety six min. It’s that translates to want to thirty six minutes I did the math for yes I can do math Cara know that I’ve been good at math. So do you think that’s is narrowed down a little bit an hour and a half a day you think you could give God an hour and a half a day do you trust him to give him an hour and a half you could break out up into two forty five minute segments where you could break it up into three half hour segments However do you like to break it up. And you guys are all yeah I spent two hours with God The other day while I was out digging the ditch no no it’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about multitasking I’m talking about time with God in prayer or in his word. Do you believe do you trust that if you give God out amount of time that you’re still going to be able to accomplish all that you had on your plate today if you thought you wanted to do you trust him enough to say I’m going to give us time to you knowing that I’ll be able to accomplish more than if I would not have given you this time. I found the quote I don’t remember who the author was says many of us struggle with giving God significant time in prayer and Bible study because the pressures of the day are knocking loudly at our door so we cut time with God short by reading a verse or two and then use the rest of our time getting what getting done what needed to be done. There really are chores that need to be none jobs that need to be attended on time and so many other practical things that should not be left on done for the sake of spiritual things but when we take a portion of our day and give it purely to God like money dropped in the offering plate we are confessing that without the blessing of God We know we are doomed and to quote. Another personal story. We’ve built a couple houses over the years and we built a house back in eighty six and eighty seven eighty six and eighty seven. We worked on that house I worked at the railroad so built this house every evening every weekend and back then when I say every weekend I mean every day in every week in five nights a week most nights til ten or eleven o’clock. Weekends both days I did not keep the Sabbath both days I worked on that house for nine months and took one day off. One day to take the kids to Kings Dominion. And it took grudgingly she says yes Rajan Lee I did I don’t want to take a day off I mean I was driven to get that house done and it took me nine months and that was a big house but yet it was a simple house it was a ranch or so then we built the house that we’re currently in two thousand and four two thousand and five and I said I’m going to keep the Sabbath. Every week I’m going to keep the Sabbath. I’d work in the evenings usually only to about nine o’clock there were a few evenings we got into a job I did have to work little bit later but most every evening about nine nine thirty I would be done instead of ten or eleven I kept the Sabbath on Saturdays and I think we even went to church some one Sunday because we had soared to church it and we even took a week’s vacation she says with a smile on her face. And though this house was not as complicated army not as big it was much much more complicated than the house that I built in eighty six it had porches all the way around it the other house on the Hill trusses if you know anything about building trusses they’re already preform you put them up boom you put the plywood on for the roof on I had to build rafters handbill rafters for all the porch to go all the way around the house half of the big part of the roof. Is rafters also because it even has a second floor it has dormers on it concrete porch is a whole lot more technical then a simple little sed rectangular rancher. How long do you think it took me to build it. Nine months. Nine months same amount of time. Month wise but a whole lot less time hourly wise why. You think maybe God bless my time. I know. God bless my time. Friends are you willing. Are you willing to Ty’s so many times that God. I am confident that he can bless your time they can and will bless your time so as he said in Molokai. He can say today concerning our time trying me now in this trial me and see if I won’t bless you see if I won’t bless your time. And I’m going to say this with ending I’m preaching to myself here. Gary knows how busy a person I am my wife knows it’s tough. So I’m preaching to myself stepping on my own toes here. I’m going to try to MY TIME TO GOD. Because I know that he will bless it I know that he will be faithful are you willing to take that challenge. Do you believe and trust got enough that he can bless your time. So if we tithe or time to God we will be wasting our time. The same thing you can do with our finances he can do or time he can bless it abundantly. To do way more with that ninety percent than we could hundred a man.