Downscaling – Part 10: Readings – 5
Even with a good budget, the ends never seem to meet. But that’s the point! Budgets aren’t for making ends meet. Money isn’t an end. Budgets are for making means fall into line! The ends we want are what Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). A budget won’t buy them, but governing our money wisely may free us to find them.
Let’s begin with what we’ll give away. If you wait until you have paid for everything else and then start looking for leftovers to share, there won’t be any. But if you start with your gifts, by an amazing miracle you will almost always find that there is enough left over to meet the necessities. (I didn’t believe that either until I tried it on a dare with myself, but it does work.) Okay, what percentage of my money shall I give?
All Christians know the word tithe, which simply means 10 percent. But to some the word has a hateful sound. Let’s face it, a tithe from one person is harder than a tithe from another. If you made three thousand dollars a year—which is thirty times as much as most of the world’s people make!—a tithe of three hundred dollars might mean shoes or beans for children who otherwise might go hungry or barefoot. But if you made $300,000 a year you could probably squeak by fairly well on the $270,000.00 left over after the tithe. In fact, taxwise, you would be better off to increase your giving to charitable causes. So we just can’t say: Make it an automatic 10 percent and let it go.
What do you do then? Why not take a hard look at what you are actually giving now. What is it? Two percent of your gross income? Five percent? You know a lot of us got into the habit of putting a quarter into the plate when our parents gave it to us as children, and we’re still operating at that level. Now set yourself a goal of increasing it a little (maybe one or two percentage points a year) until you get to a place that you honestly consider a sacrificial level. Don’t stop at 10 percent. I know a family that puts aside 30 percent of their income into a special bank account each month. At the end of the month, they take pleasure in writing a check for 10 percent to their church, another 10 percent to regular causes in their community, and (here’s the best part), they save the third portion to build up interest until something really special comes along. Then they have a family council and decide how to spend it.
Can you imagine how much more fun it is to decide what to do with a surplus than to have the usual squabble over what to trim? But never mind about what the Joneses are doing. You and I have to establish our own budgets, not somebody else’s. And no simple formula will work. The tithe means 10 percent.
But is that 10 percent to the church, or 10 percent to all charitable causes? And do I take it off before or after income taxes? The answer is none of these things. That figure of 10 percent which used to be a legal obligation on the ancient Hebrews, is still a good starting point for Christian giving, but it isn’t the end we seek. To give the whole tithe to the church, after taxes would merely be a duty fulfilled and no grounds for glory (see Luke 17:10). We can’t stop there. Like the rich young man, we have to go the whole way (Mark 10:21).
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Traveling Light, Pat McGeachy, Abingdon Press, pages 87-89.
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?
Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?
David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.
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For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.
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