Tithe Testimony: A Tenth is a Tenth

 Read Malachi 3:10

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

 

At the next service, we will have what I have called “The Money Message.”

I will touch on the tithe, but it will be one among many pieces of biblical counsel. For now, let’s talk tithe.

What is the tithe?  This is a no-brainer, but we have complicated the simple.  Tithe means tenth.

But I faithfully give five percent of my income.  OK, that’s s faithful five, not a tithe. I’m not trying to milk anyone for more money. Tithe means tenth.  There is no interpretation there.

But will the Lord not bless me if I give cheerfully of my income?  He will.  More accurately, he does. We are witness to that.

But shouldn’t there be a sliding scale? Shouldn’t the poor pay a smaller percentage than the rich?

If that is your thinking, I challenge you to examine your thinking.  Do you regard the tithe as a tax? Has God ever said, pay your taxes to me?

We have counsel to pay our taxes to the worldly authorities. We are to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

But if we regard the tithe as a tax, we’ve missed the boat. I counseled people on their finances before I was called to ordained ministry. Realize that’s sort of like saying, “On occasion, I like to go grab an electric fence.”

Why would anyone do that? It’s no fun, especially in this modern century. OK, let’s get to the point.

I drafted and used a budget worksheet much of which I sourced from some of you and others. It categorized income and expenses. So, where did I put the tithe on this worksheet?

Not as an expense. I had a stand-alone line between income and expense. The tithe is not an expense.

But, I’m writing a check or handing out some cash or cash apping money out of my account.  Correct, you are taking money out of your account. it’s just not an expense.

It is the tithe.

This is a quasi-rabbit trail that I hope ties back to the message. I enjoy writing and will probably write for the rest of my life. I have made it known that if I can get to my computer and my bathroom unassisted, you are not sticking me in a nursing home.

Probably, if I can just get to my computer, that would be enough. I can Amazon one-click diapers. Don’t get fixated on that visual. I like to write.

But my editorial skills have atrophied.  Once upon a time, I could write a few hundred words, set the piece aside for ten minutes, come back to it, and give it a thorough edit. Not anymore.

There is this online program called Grammarly. I had used the free version for about a year. It was just a spell checker on steroids. Then, I tried their premium version on a week-long free trial.  I did it because I didn’t have to give them my credit card number until the trial was over.

Many businesses give you a trial and take your card number and charge you at the end of the trial if you forget to cancel. Guess who might just forget. So, this was truly a no risk deal.

This upgraded version uses AI. It’s not one of those that says, "Give me a topic, and I’ll do all the thinking and write your article, research paper, or love letter to your wife."

That’s the AI I’m not too sure about.  I’ve seen those Terminator movies. I have been pleased with my subscription so far, but I got an eye opener preparing this message.

I had used the word tithe several times, but my syntax changed a little for one sentence and the AI suggested that I use the word levy instead. Levy means to impose a tax.

Is it any wonder that we seem to be swimming upstream in this world?

Tithe or tax? That seems like saying small dog instead of puppy. Let’s dig deeper.

Let’s start with the blessing. God says you can outgive me. If you give what I have prescribed, I will give you an incredible investment return. It’s not always money. Sometimes, it’s bitcoin. Not!

Blessings come in all manner of forms, but many here are witnesses to the blessings they experienced once they began to tithe.

So, there is a blessing that accompanies the tithe.  That’s cool. I like that.

Let’s keep digging. The tithe fills God’s storehouse. What? Does God need our money?

The tithe fills the storehouse here on this earth so the church may minister to the needs of many while we live in this world. We give and store up eternal blessings in heaven. We tithe and fill up God’s storehouse where we minister to many, including what Jesus would call the least of these, here on this earth.

I’m not sure that’s all a cash deal, either.  I am sure God has an Ikea section in the storehouse because sometimes I had to do some assembly when he blessed me. I was still blessed.

The tithe equips the church to do its work on this earth. Dave Ramsey said that only 20% of Christians tithe. I use him because I don’t know any other trustworthy source, and Ramsey consistently gives good counsel.

Twenty percent! I have often said if every Christian and Jew tithed, government social programs would be irrelevant. It would be wise to give our government a little money for defense and interstate highways, but the basic human needs of the people would be met.

Twenty percent, that’s some stuff.

So, the tithe is a tenth. It is not a tax. God blessed us to make the tithe—to bring the full tithe into the storehouse.

As you consider the tithe, read the whole book of Malachi. The people were just going through the motions. Instead of picking out an unblemished animal to present as a sacrificial offering, they would get the one with the limp and a bad eye. Good ‘nuff.

Malachi asks, do you think you could get away with this with what you pay the secular government in taxes?

That’s like asking, do you think the IRS will accept Monopoly money?

We should always give God our best! I hope that I don’t need to be persuasive here. I think that we know that.  God gets our best.

Some people have asked if that was me in my office at three in the morning. I usually reply with was my car in front of the building. They say yes. Then, it was likely me. I am something of a wimp in my old age and only walk to my office during daylight hours.

Then they say, is your wife mad at you?

I usually say, yes, most of the time, but that has nothing to do with why I’m in the office.

I have found that my best hours are usually early or late, mainly early. I also know that when I drive somewhere these days, I am tired when I get back.

I can still do productive things after returning, but my best is before. We had to get to a medical appointment in the city at 10:30 a.m., and I knew that the things that I needed to accomplish needed my best.

We made it back by 1:00 p.m., and that was with a lunch stop. I can sort or give out food, fill out a spreadsheet or copy papers for a meeting, check thermostats, reply to an email, or wash off a stain on the kitchen counter that was not there an hour ago. Nobody has been in the building except me. I can work on unsolved mysteries.

But to hone my focus on what God has led me to prepare for Sunday or Wednesday or the Hour of Power or the online posts and articles that might be a might prickly for some, I must deliberately use my best time.

Looks like I am not doing a video on the Parable of the Talents  next week. So in my, what did I do with what God gave me self-application, I know the where, what, and when of my best hours.

I thought we were talking about the tithe.  We are.  God wants your first, your best, your tithe to be something other than a tax or a duty or a gotta do.

Let’s get to trusting God.  God did not say to trust him, but that is precisely what we are discussing.  Will we trust God with ten percent of our money?

Come on, Tom, could you sugar coat that one a little?

God says put me to the test.  In 2024, God dares us to see if he won’t follow through on his promise. In Oklahoma that means that God double dog dares us to test him.

Put him to the test! I challenge you to find another scripture that says to put God to the test.

OK, it’s testimony time. Why? The preacher preaches it but does he live it? It’s too easy for the preacher. He has to tithe.

For years, I struggled with the tithe. I was a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, and though my pay scale didn’t match those of the corporate for-profit world, I was still paid at a professional level.

I struggled to pay the tithe. I knew that I should, but I would become anxious and do a couple hundred here and there, mostly responding to my guilt for wimping out on the tithe. I wasn’t tithing and my giving wasn’t all that cheerful.

Come on, cut me some slack here. I was raising two kids, sending one of them to private (faith-based) schools for a few years, needing a haircut every few days, and always on the go. I didn’t seem to have enough at the end to give to God.

Yes, after all my money was spent, I was trying to work in my tithe—which I never got to—or my offering after all of my worldly expenses had been addressed. I had read my Bible and knew better, but I still struggled.

I left the Marine Corps and came to Burns Flat, America, where my income became less than half of what I had been making. I was still struggling to give financially.

I decided to tithe beginning in Y2K. Even if we ended up homeless and starving, I was still going to tithe. I did. It was the first check that I wrote each pay period.

There were some months where my expenses exceeded my income, but I paid all my bills and had something left over.

That doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t exist in human math, but God makes 90% go further than 100%. My finances improved over time, but I never backed off the tithe and am blessed to this day because of my decision and commitment.

I worked a couple of years at the prison before it closed about 20 years ago. As far as pay went, I considered it something of a ministry. I was making a difference in the lives of some, I hope many, inmate clients.

But it was more of a ministry than a money-maker sort of like the janitorial job here, because I was paid about the same as Oklahoma teachers. I don’t know anyone who is getting rich teaching in Oklahoma. That job—calling—is part ministry.

It didn’t matter to me. I continued to tithe. Paid a lot or a little.

Then I went to work for the Oklahoman. My starting pay was a little more than the prison's. Then I got a raise and a promotion to where I had a fourth of the state. I was no longer considered a manager but an executive.

How did I know I was an executive? They don’t put the words The Oklahoman on the side of executive vehicles. Why? So nobody throws rocks at your car.

It sounded good. I still did a lot of basic grunt work, but the pay was better, and I got not just a vehicle but a company car that was considered part of my compensation package.  They handed me a fuel card and told me to use the car and the card anywhere in the state.

I could take the vehicle anywhere in the United States; they just asked that I pay for my fuel out of state. In five years, I had five vehicles, three of them new cars. The last one was a Dodge Charger. It was fun to have a sporty vehicle that the company gave me. Considering not having a car payment for a new car, insurance costs, and almost no fuel cost, this was like having an extra ten thousand dollars a year.

I tithed based on my total compensation package.

Teachers should get a company vehicle if we do not pay them what they deserve. That said, I was being pulled to something else: a call to ordained ministry.

I started at less than half of what the newspaper was paying me. Nobody made me agree to the amount. But here was the problem.

I continued to tithe at my previous pay level. God continued to bless me, but I had some anxiety because that was tough to budget. I am not an anxious person, buI have driven through minefields with less stress than I had over the tithe.

 I was still blessed and knew it, but something wasn’t right.

I did that for two years and then took a pay cut. I was wrestling with this, and I was the one who had just finished my schooling and been ordained. I should have known better.

I knew the be anxious for nothing scripture, but as I tried to turn this over to God, I got this message. It was not audible, but it seemed to be a message personalized for me. It seemed to go like this.

Hey, Dummy! I have seen your IQ score and you are not stupid. You did go into the Marines so you can be that smart. I said put me to the test, not you. You trust me with that ten percent, and I will take care of that anxiety.

I did and felt liberated from something that should have never indentured me. Here’s the thing. I still gave about the same amount each year, but those were offerings beyond the tithe prompted by the Spirit of God, without any hint of anxiety. I was a cheerful giver.

Typically, tithe messages challenge, encourage, shame, or manipulate someone to give the full tithe, as Malachi's syntax directs. I hope none of mine ever ventured into the latter two.

My testimony is here to say that most of us—including your pastor--have struggled at some point. Some still do.

But what if ten percent is ten percent, and that’s just the deal? It’s not six percent, sixteen percent, or twenty-six percent. It’s ten percent.

God says put me to the test and see what happens. It’s going to be good.

He did not say he would put us to the test in this. We put burdens on ourselves that we were never meant to bear.

I don’t know how much each person gives or tithes, but I can do some math contrary to popular belief. I see the number of people we have and our monthly giving totals and know we are above the twenty-percent average.

But there are blessings and liberty and peace in making the tithe. Do you have to tithe?  No.

But considering the blessings, liberty, and peace that come from ten percent, why wouldn’t we?

Amen.

God loves a cheerful giver

Read 2 Corinthians 8-9

Imagine getting up every morning and heading out to gather food for the day.  You don’t have to hunt for it.  It is just there.  You can bring home just enough to feed your family for the day.

It’s not quite bringing home the bacon.  In fact, bringing home the bacon would not have gone over well had you been a Hebrew wandering in the wilderness.  Bringing home the Manna was surely the metaphor of the day as well as the literal work of the day.

God provided for each and every day.  If you saved up something for tomorrow, it went bad and was ridden with maggots.

Give us this day our daily bread was a literal way of life.  OK, on Friday’s you could gather a double portion so that you did not have to gather on the Sabbath.

Some gathered a lot and some a lot less.  It did not matter.  It was enough and it wouldn’t keep overnight, save the single exception made to uphold the Sabbath law.

It was enough.

It was sufficient.

It met the needs of God’s people.

Occasionally, there would be a quail roast to vary the diet, but God’s people were being taught to rely upon God for their daily provision.

We should be content with our daily provision, sort of content anyway.  We are made in the image of God.  Our Creator decided to make us in his own likeness, and being made in his likeness comes with some issues.

Such as?

Such as—our God is a generous God and being made in his image, he is shaping us with a fine scalpel into vessels of generosity.

Generosity?  Really?  I can hardly pay my bills.

Bills for what?

A very reliable automobile or two or three?

A home with indoor plumbing, central heat and air, gas, and electric?

Satellite television?

Internet?

Insurance?

Medical Insurance?

If you could turn back time 100 years, you might get nothing but perplexed looks from anyone you talked with about these things.

Cars, sure, they are what the very rich people drive.

Indoor plumbing?  You bet, in the next decade or so we might just get some of that.

Air conditioning?   What?  Do you mean a shade tree and a breeze?

Television?  Internet?  The next thing you will tell me is that movies will have sound and that we can watch them on a hand held device. 

Medical Insurance?  Now you have lost me altogether.

Yes, if we compared our present struggles with where people in our country were 100 years ago, we could legitimately say that we struggle to maintain our standard of luxury.

I like indoor plumbing and air conditioning and the internet but I know that they are not essential to life.  They are blessings.

I can’t turn back time but I have seen much of the world. In early 1981, I was hiking into the Philippine jungle with my platoon behind me.  I was the third platoon back on the company march along a very narrow trail in which it was difficult for two Marines to walk abreast of each other.  We were in the boonies for sure.

After a couple hours of walking, the trail opened up. To our left was a fair-sized house made out of C-Ration cardboard.  What ingenuity!  What genius.  What poverty.  A family was living in a house made out of discarded cardboard.

Don’t get me wrong, C-Rat cardboard is the best in the world for waterproofing.  It has a fair insulation value.  It is sturdy.

How do I know this?

In many a cold and wet moment, a piece of C-Rat cardboard was just the insulation from the cold or wet ground that I needed to get a couple hours of sleep.

These people had built an entire house out of the stuff, to include what seemed to be a garage, at least there was a garage door-sized opening that faced the trail which brought us past this unique site.  But there was no car in the garage, not even a Jeepney or a bicycle.

Instead, there was a beautiful pool table around which were gathered some young men who seemed to be enjoying themselves and nearly oblivious to our passing.

What a contrast.  What a dichotomy.  What a paradox.  We were witness to luxury within poverty.

Or was it poverty?  Did that single item constitute luxury?

How does the world define poverty?

By how much stuff you can buy.  Jesus said that a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions, but the world defines haves and have nots by how much stuff you can buy.  It is not necessarily how much stuff you have but how much more you can go get.

It is that go buy something urge that must be honored, respected, and perhaps worshiped in our culture.

How do we know if we are rich or poor?  Do you use the world’s metrics?  Paul said that Jesus became poor for us.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

So Jesus was poor?  He didn’t even have a pool table in a cardboard house?  He might have had a regular house in Capernaum.  Mark’s gospel would indicate that this was his home area.  I hope his homeowner's insurance covered holes in the roof.

Why do we even use this as a criterion?  A house?  Really?  The man had a boat whenever he needed one.  He had a room for supper whenever he needed one.  He had a ride into town whenever he asked for one.  The world was at his beck and call but he was unencumbered by any possessions.

How many times in the scriptures do we read Jesus saying, “OK guys, everyone take two weeks off to go home and cut the grass, or paint the trim, somebody better win YARD OF THE MONTH this time.”

Jesus told a man who thought he was ready to follow him, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

So was Jesus poor or not?

Of course he was, but not as the world defines poor.  He gave up his place in heaven to walk on this earth for over three decades as a man, and he even gave that life as a man up of his own accord.

If you were to ask Jesus if he were rich or poor while he walked the earth, his answer might just be:  Asked and answered.

A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

We are trying to frame our understanding of rich and poor, poverty and abundance, haves and have nots but we are asking the wrong questions.

Let’s look at some verbs—some action words.

Jesus gave up his place in heaven.

Jesus gave up his life freely.

God gave his one and only Son.

That’s a lot of giving.

Should we ask God for daily provision?  Yes!  Absolutely yes!  Jesus modeled a prayed that asked God for daily bread.  That might be Manna or doing the will of the Father or just a sliced loaf of whole-grain rye.

We need to affirm daily that God does sustain us, but getting by is not enough for the follower of Jesus.

We need to get to generosity.  We want to know abundant life.  We want to live.  We need to get to generosity.

Paul talks about churches in Macedonia.  This is probably everything in and around Thessalonica.  These are some poor folks by the standards of the world but they have scraped together an offering for the poor in Jerusalem.

These believers might have had less than those they were helping but they were led to give anyway.  They did not run down the payday loan company to get the money.  They gave out of what they had.  It was surely something along the lines of a widow’s mite offering.  It was surely some sort of offering that required further sacrifice in the people’s lives, but they gave out of the little that they had.

Now Corinth had been quick to respond to this love offering but now Paul is reminding them to finish the work.  Do what they committed to do.  They were willing at first.  Now they must follow through.

The congregation in Corinth was surely better off than the ones up north, so why did Paul need to make this appeal?

Do you own your money or does it own you?  Do you own your stuff or does it own you?

Does that moment of hesitation in giving become a moment of retreat?  Are we like Ananias and Sapphria?  We sell something of considerable value to give to the Lord’s work, and then at the last moment decide that we might just ought to keep half of that back for ourselves.

Some might be cringing at this point.  Here it comes.  I knew it from the beginning.  The preacher is going to talk about the tithe.  He is going to tell us to go for the full 10%.

If we have been tithing 2% or 5% working our way up to the full tithe, he is going to make his move and challenge everyone to tithe 10%.

I knew this sermon would be about tithing.

Except it is not.  We are going way beyond the tithe.  The preacher does not have to preach the tithe because so many have testimonies about the blessings of the tithe.

The preacher is talking about abundant life.  It is time to understand generosity.  It is time to embrace being a joyful giver.

I am not talking about the tithe.  I am talking to those who already tithe and have been blessed.  You know that this small congregation has enough money to pay the bills, fund ministries, and even replace an occasional tile floor.

Part of the purpose of the tithe is to fill God’s storehouse so we can do God’s work.  The storehouse is not full but a little more is coming in than is going out.  We are slowly getting there.

Our focus is on generosity.  Today, I want you to think of generosity that has nothing to do with what goes into the collection plate.

Think of the generosity that flows directly out of the temple that you walk around in every day, and ask two questions:

    Am I generous?  Am I joyful?

Now put them together.  Am I a joyful giver?

I can always give a joyful greeting.

A smile on my face that acknowledges that I have a bit more than my daily provision is a nice touch as well.

I can walk a few steps out of my way to go say, “God bless you” or “God’s peace to you” or just give someone a hug instead of a distant wave.

Paul commends us to give from what we have.

I challenge us to really look at what we have.  For the past several years, the Spence household has been making monthly runs to the Mission House, Judah House, and Christi’s Thrift Store just giving away stuff.  Usually, we have something for the youth yard sale as well.

You would think that by now we would have run out of stuff, but that is not the case.  We not only have enough stuff but we have more than enough stuff.

The junk goes straight to the trash but we have stuff that has value.  It is just sitting there in our house.  It has greater value when we give it to somebody that will put it to use or sell it to help one of these local missions.

Better still is when we see someone who could use that stuff and we just give it to them.  You don’t get a tax receipt with that but the joy factor far exceeds the minor deduction forfeited.

Some might say, “I don’t have any extra stuff.  I live lean and clean.”

For that you are blessed but if the kids across the street don’t have shoes, sometime before school starts back up in the fall go know the door of the parents and ask if you can take their kids to Dollar General or Walmart on a shopping trip.  There is a certain liberty in wearing a worn-out pair of shoes all summer, but see if you can’t help out for the school year.

If you live in a neighborhood overrun by a bunch of screaming, sweaty kids; make some lemonade or Kool-Aid or ice water.  Be generous.  Be cheerful!

If your neighbor can’t keep up with his yard and you have a nice riding mover, swing by and take a few laps.  But I don’t have a riding mower, well then, pay the kids roaming the town with their movers in search of a job a few bucks to cut his grass.

Be on the lookout for opportunities to be generous!

I am not talking about Chewy Tuesdays.  This is a wonderful ministry.  It is full of blessings for those who give and receive, but it takes place once a week.  I am talking about opportunities that present themselves to this temple that we walk around in each and every day.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

You will abound in every good work.  Now we are getting to abundant life.  Our lives are not about how much stuff we have but about fullness in doing God’s work.

It is about living and giving with joy in our hearts.

And yet our human hearts and human minds doubt.  We wonder when the well will run dry and we will have nothing more to give.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.   You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Not only will our harvest be incredible, but God will replenish and even increase the seeds that we have to plant.

We will be enriched in every way.  Stop thinking in the world’s framework but in terms of abundant living—of genuine fullness in our lives.

Our generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

We always have the opportunity to be generous.  Someway, somehow, generosity is always an option for us.  That does not always mean money or stuff.  Sometimes is time or compassion or listening but we are blessed that oftentimes it is money or stuff.  We have more than enough.

Think back to where we started.  The poorest among us in this country sometimes struggle to maintain not our standard of living but our standard of luxury.

In the commands to love God and love one another, most of the ways that we can think of to love God involve loving one another but realize that in being generous with others that generosity itself may lead to others giving thanks to God.

The scripture says that God loves a cheerful giver.  This is the agape love that we know in the blood of Jesus.  It is not that this willing and cheerful giving on our part causes God to love us more.  It is that we understand more of this love that seems just beyond our comprehension when we give with joy in our hearts.

Now whether we are giving sacrificially or out of an abundance from which we barely notice, we are giving from what we have.

God does not expect us to give something that we don’t have.

He does want us to have eyes to see that what we have is his already and in so doing liberate us from the slavery of being owned by our money or our stuff or anything else that slows us down as we follow Jesus.

Abundant life is less about what we have and more about what we give.

It is about joyful giving.  It is about never giving out of compulsion or perceived duty or obligation.

Paul considered the plight of the Macedonians.  They were in the middle of severe trials and surely knew poverty but they were richly generous and their joy was overflowing.

Their joy had nothing to do with how much or how little they had but that they were generous with what they had.

Now in this instance this had to do with a special love offering.  It was a big deal.  It connected many of the early churches in a common effort.

Today, we have many opportunities to give to our denomination, our Children’s home, our local ministries, and to area ministries; but on this day, I ask you to consider not just those established ways in which we may give with joy in our heart, but also how we give joyfully in each and every encounter we have in the days and weeks to come.

When people have an encounter with us do they go away thinking that we are joyful and generous?

Do they depart their encounter with us thanking God for our generosity?

It might just be a smile that we gave freely.

It might be a cold drink.

It might be a hug.

It might be a gallon of gasoline or a gallon of milk.

It could be a ride to Walmart.

It could be making sandwiches for the neighbor kids, just because.

It might be that you really want to be generous and you know some kids that could really use something extra but you just can’t scrape a few dollars together right now and you actually paid attention when I preached the proverbs for a year and you know that debt is not the answer.  Running up a credit card bill is not the answer.

So what do you do?

You stop thinking that you are in this generosity business all by yourself.  There are going to be times when you can help a lot and times when you can’t but you still can.  You see those who were able have been filling baskets with Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter for a few weeks.

Can you pick up a bag of those and take them to some hungry kids in your neighborhood and tell them that God loves them and do it with joy in your heart?

Let us all examine our hearts and our closets and our storerooms and our checkbooks and be on the lookout for opportunities to be generous.

Even if in this world of luxury that we call lower to middle class America, you cannot muster anything to give but you see a need, especially as it involves children, then stop by my office and let’s talk.  Somebody has already given something or will come into my office within moments just looking for an opportunity to give because they know the joy of giving.

It is a very addictive high.

If nothing else, you can take a bag of Pop-Tarts and Peanut Butter to prime the pump.  Once you have tasted the joy of giving, your vision improves.

You find things around your house that might be better suited in a household that doesn’t have much.

You find $10 a month in your budget for the Family Care Center or the Children’s Home or $32 a month for a World Vision kid.

You find time in your life and Kool-Aid on the shelf and make cold drinks and read a book to the neighborhood kids.

And you give with joy and are filled with joy and God refills your seed bin so you can do it all again and know—finally know—what abundant life is.

God loves a joyful giver.

The verb here for us is “give.”  The action word is “give.”

But in our giving we know joy from start to finish.  We know love that goes beyond what we can comprehend in our minds.

God loves a joyful giver.  This is a big part of the abundant life that Jesus wants us to know.

Amen.