You may not have discovered it yet, but I can be difficult to deal with many times, and I will be the first to admit that. I give my sweet wife all the credit in the world, because I can frustrate anyone with my behavioral quirks and idiosyncrasies, but she remains patient when it comes to my odd behavior. She tolerates my strange requests and habits with little-to-no complaining. One of my more prominent quirks is that I like to plan as much as I can plan when it comes to certain things. Now, when it comes to things that I know, like Bible studies, group discussions, or something that most people spend time planning for, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. However, when it comes to things like budgets and orders of operation, I am a very planned person. I’m the type of person who goes on vacation, but keeps a tentative schedule in my head as to what I want to happen and when it should happen. I’m the type of person who sits down at the beginning and ending of each work day and makes a list of things that I need to get done that particular day. I’m the type of person who makes a list on Friday of all the things that I want to have done by the time that Monday morning rolls around. I’m the type of person that every time there is a change in our financial situation at home, I sit down and I figure out how much is spent on bills, groceries, gas, childcare, etc. I like to have every piece of information at my fingertips. I enjoy being able to find an answer to any and all questions that I may have about our families welfare. I like to have all the information in front of me. Regardless of what the information may say, it helps me knowing that I have a clear understanding as to what’s going on.
As you can probably imagine, there has been a great deal of change that has taken place within my family over the last year, and really over the last 5 years. In July of 2007, I began my studies at Reformed Theological Seminary. Now, I was still getting a paycheck from my previous employment as a high school science teacher and baseball coach, but that was getting ready to change; July was my last check. So, Amy and I sat down and we figured out what we were spending each month in order to figure out where we needed to cut back and it seemed like almost every time we attempted this, we would remember at the very end that we hadn’t accounted for our church offering. And our offering was pretty simple, at least 10% of whatever our income happened to be, but we’ll dive into that a little more next Sunday when we look at the prophet Malachi. So, we had our adjusted budget for the time being. Since that time, we have seen our family grow twice, a change in employment for each of us, a move from MS to Houma, and that’s only the major changes. Each time we experienced one of these changes we would go through the same process and adjust our budget accordingly. Each time, we would figure everything out and it seemed like nearly every time we would remember at the end that we had to account for our tithe. So we made a promise to each other a while back that when new family budgets got configured and monthly expenses got checked, that our giving to God would be the first thing that we set aside. It was important to us for that to be first.
In our text today, we’re told about giving to God. The book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom, primarily from Solomon, for the purpose of guiding people through life in such a manner so that they honor God appropriately. The first nine chapters are information that Solomon is passing down to us just as a father would pass down to his son. He is giving us some very practical advice for leading Godly lives. In verses 9 and 10, he is telling us a little bit about how we are to conduct ourselves when it comes to giving. “Honor the Lord with you wealth, with the firstfruits of all your produce.” The firstfruits refers to a practice that we’re first told about in Deuteronomy 26. We’re told to give to God using the first and best portion of our harvest. We’re told to give back to God what is rightfully His. We’re told that it is only fitting that we give our firstfruits, our greatest and our best, back to the one who has first given to us. Unfortunately, many Christians today give to God only out of their surplus and their leftovers. If they can afford to give something after all of their monthly bills are paid, then they do. If money or time is tight, then they just don’t give.
Some people, and for that matter some of you, may hear these words coming out of my mouth and say, “Preacher, does it really matter whether I give first or give last? Isn’t it just important that I give, and that’s all that matters?” Well, yes and no. It is important that you give, but that isn’t all that matters. We will see in a few weeks that giving back to God shouldn’t be a painful or joyless concept. We should be able to recognize how God has so richly blessed us and we ought to rush to give back to Him and give but a portion of what He has given to us already. God doesn’t require that we give all of our possessions and our wealth back to Him, but he does demand a portion. He does demand that we honor Him with our wealth.
This language of fruit makes me think about the process of buying fruit, which is a humorous thing to me. If you’ve never watched someone pick out fruit, then try it next time you’re at the grocery store. Everyone has their own method for telling when a particular fruit or vegetable is ripe or “good”. We inspect, squeeze, tap, smell, or I’ve even seen some people shake fruit to see if they want to buy it. And we do this because we want good fruit; we want the best fruit available. We don’t want to buy something and then get home and realize that it isn’t what we thought it was. We love going to the store and seeing that the produce has just been put out and that there are seemingly innumerable choices before us. Very few of us in here like it when we want some bananas and there are only those few brown ones left that no one else wanted. We want first pick; we don’t care for the leftovers. We’re not happy that we got the bananas, we’re upset that we got only the lesser and leftover bananas. We got what was remaining after everyone else. Why in the world would we think that God would want our leftovers? If we know that we’re not happy with them, then why would we expect God to be happy with them?
You see, it would be really easy for all of us, myself included, to say that we “need” this and that and if there’s anything left over then I’ll give it God. But what happens when we think like that is that we place ourselves about God. We start to think that our needs and our goals are the top priorities in our life. Remember, as I have said, it isn’t as if God is calling all of us to give everything and take a vow of poverty. He is simply demanding that we give back a portion of what He has given to us already. It is better to give God the first part of our fruits. This shows that God, not possessions, take precedence in our lives and that our resources belong to Him. After all, we are only managers of God’s resources. There is nothing that is completely ours. Giving to God first helps us conquer greed. It helps us to properly manage God’s resources. Perhaps most importantly, it opens us up to receive God’s special blessings. Matthew Henry, in his commentary on the entire Bible, says of these verses, “God, who is the first and best, must have the first and best of everything; his right is prior to all other, and therefore he must be served first. Note, it is our duty to make our worldly estates serviceable to our religion, to use them and the interest we have by them for the promoting of religion, to do good to the poor with what we have and abound in all works of piety and charity.”
So, what happens when we give to God in the manner in which He commands us to? Well, we’re told here that, “Your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.” The picture being painted here is one of abundance and plenty and not that of lacking and want. You see, it’s not as if we are forced to make a choice between giving to God and taking care of ourselves and our families. Just like we saw two weeks ago when we witnessed the young boy give the basket of food to Christ, and it was used to feed 10,000-15,000 people and have twelve baskets of fragments left over, there will be plenty. Just like we saw last week, it isn’t about what we have to put in, but that when we invest what God has given to us, and given to us in abundance, then our return is never empty. Our return is never less than 100%. I can’t think of a businessman alive who would ever tell you that you should not invest in something that offers a minimum of a 100% return. Why would investing in the Gospel be any different?
Now, I’m not saying that if you give something to God that you get that exact thing back and then some. What I am saying is that there is no such thing as an empty investment in God or the Gospel. There is no such thing as a worthless investment of time, talents, money, or any other resource when we are speaking in terms of committing and growing in the Christian faith. I can’t imagine anyone ever coming into my office and sitting down across from me and saying, “You know Tommy, I give and give and give to the church, but I don’t really feel like I ever get anything in return.” If someone ever did, my answer would be simple, “Well, first off, it isn’t about you, and second, I bet that I could point to several things and show you just how blessed you have been through your investment in God’s kingdom.”
God has given us all more gifts than we could ever count. He has blessed us so much that we wouldn’t know where to begin when listing all that He has done for us. Despite all that He has given to us and all that He has done on our behalf, He simply commands for us to honor Him with what He has given us, and to give it to Him first. God wants our best, and He deserves our best. In fact, He really deserves more than our best, but unfortunately that’s all we can give Him. As you continue to pray about what you want to commit to God in the coming year, I want all of us to take some time and to think about how richly we have all been blessed. When we truly see how great our blessing are, then we will never think that God is asking too much when He commands our firstfruits. His blessings will never cease. Glory be to God; the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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