What Does Generosity Really Mean? | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters

today we're going to talk about money. Now I know, I know, I know this is every Christian's nightmare that on the Sunday you bring a first time guest, the pastor talks about money. So here's the deal. If you brought a first time guest today,

you honestly, you have my permission. You can get up, head on out, take them and buy them a cup of coffee, bring them back next week for the marriage series, and on the marriage series, the only one that's gonna be talking about money is your wife. Okay? So you

can do that. If you're in the room and you haven't figured out Jesus yet, this does not apply to you. No one wants your money. It might be interesting for you to stay and hear the conversation because if you do decide to give your life to Christ,

you might as well know what one of the expectations is on the other side of that decision, money. Matter of fact, most specifically, we're going to talk about the tithe and the tithe is simply this, tithe literally means 10%.

So it's this idea that you and I as Christ followers give 10% of our income to the kingdom, to church. Now here's the deal, if I were a non Christian, this would be the number one reason for my skepticism about Christianity. Let me explain why. 87% of Christians don't tithe

and here's what I would be saying, hey, you talk about how great Jesus is, you talk about how he changed your life, about how you love him more than anything else in this world and that that you would follow him wherever he asked you to go, but the reality is you're not willing for your faith to cost you anything.

Oh, I know. I know you go to church and I know you sing songs, but that's easy stuff. But when the rubber meets the road, it actually is, hey, are you going to invest in it? Are you going to put your money where your mouth is? Your answer is no.

So why are you asking me to buy into something that you haven't bought into yourself? And I'd say, come back and talk to me when it gets real for you. So we're just going to talk today. We're going to talk about tithing and what that means and what the scripture say about it. Now here's the deal. 87%

of us don't tithe and you've heard pastors talk about money before and your answer has been no. No. No. Would you do this? Would you take your no and set it to the side just for the next thirty minutes? And would you listen with an open heart

and with an open mind and after thirty minutes, your answer is still no, you can pick your no up and walk right out the door and just do what you've been doing till now, you can. But would you listen with a heart that asks this question, what is God hoping I'll do today?

Here we go. Grab your bibles, go with me to the book of Malachi, probably one of the moments that God most clearly talks about the tithe.

Chances are you're not familiar. Malachi is this tiny tiny book in the bible. It's literally the last book in the old testament. So let me tell you how to get there. Go to the back of your bible, work your way through the new testament. When you get to Matthew, slow down, slow down, slow down because

Malachi is coming up and you could miss it. If you get into a book that has another weird name, come back. Okay? Malachi. Let me explain what's happening in this moment. Malachi chapter three, Israel has fallen away from God.

They've looked at the nations around them and believed that they were more prosperous. Their sheep have more lambs. Their their fields have greater crops and so they're going, hey, why are we following God if God's not making us prosperous? And so they begin to worship the idols

of the nations around them. They turn to false gods in order to acquire more wealth. In this moment, God is going to say to them, hey, it's time to come back. Come back to me and if you come back to me, I'll come back to you and then he's going to tell them how to come back. Now,

as we have this conversation today, Malachi is gonna be our core reference. Just keep your finger there. I'm gonna give you a ton of verses because I want you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, this isn't my conversation,

this is God's conversation. And you're gonna see plenty of verses to back that up, but Malachi is where we're gonna live. So just keep your finger there. Here we go. Malachi chapter three starting, in verse six. I, the lord, do not change, so you, the descendants of Jacob,

are not destroyed. Here's the deal. So when god calls Abraham, he promises Abraham, hey, I'm gonna give you a mighty nation that's gonna survive all the way till, I return again. I promise you that's gonna happen. God's saying in this moment, look, you've been so unfaithful by all rights, I should have discarded you

but I won't because of my promises. That's the only reason you're still okay. Verse seven, ever since the time of your ancestors, you've turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, how are we to return?

What do we have to do God to tell you that we're sincere and we mean this and and we wanna get back into right relationship with you? And look at God's answer because it'll probably surprise most of us. Verse eight, he will a man will a mere mortal rob God, yet you rob me. But you ask, how are we robbing you?

In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, the whole nation of you because you are robbing me. And literally God says, hey, if if you're sincere, if you mean this, if you really want to come back to me, begin to tithe. It's interesting. He didn't say, hey, start going to church more.

He didn't say, hey, sing a little louder when you're there. He didn't say, hey, widows. He said, if you're really sincere about your relationship with me, then begin to tithe. Why? Why would God make that the condition? Is God so greedy that he wants them to buy themselves back into his favor?

Here's what you need to know. God does not need their money. He needs what their money is attached to, and their money is attached to their hearts. He knows they can't bring the tithe and not bring their hearts with it. And a matter of fact, there's two tests

that happen when you and I consider tithing that we either pass or we fail. And a matter of fact, Jesus talks about these two tests in Matthew chapter six.

Here's Jesus having that conversation. He says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He said, I understand you as humans well enough to know this, there's something about money and your heart. There's an attachment there.

So where you invest, where you put your money will tell me what you truly love. Someone has said this, show me your bank statement, I'll show you what you actually care about. And Jesus is saying this, where your money is, there's where your heart will be also because he knew you could not possibly bring the tithe and not

bring your heart with it. Maybe this helps. So when I got engaged to Lisa, I wasn't planning on getting engaged. She hoodwinked. No. I'm we were having a conversation and somewhere in that conversation it turned and and I was surprised and and I said something really romantic like, well, I guess I'm asking you to marry me.

I know, I know, I'm a Casanova, I know. But here's the problem, I had quit my job a week before this. I had no money. I was living at home with my mother and now I'm engaged.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal when that status changes, that there's a ring on the finger that declares, Hey, I'm in a new status with this man.

Previous to this, I had been working at a job that, I mean, I was making for what was me silly money. And one day I had been in the mall, I'd walked into a jewelry store and there was what I to this day still think was probably the coolest man's ring I have ever seen,

honking diamond right there in the middle. I bought the ring. So now I have a great ring on my finger. My fiance has a bare finger. So here's what I did. I went down to Zales. I said, Hey,

I'm looking to trade this ring in order to get an engagement ring. The salesperson took one look at the ring, eyes got big and they said, we can make a deal. And so thirty minutes later, we walked out, Lisa had an engagement ring on her finger, my finger was bare. Lisa will tell people that story all the time.

And when she does, here's what she says. It was in that moment that I knew that Lynn genuinely loved me. He loved me more than his ring, which was really precious to him. He loved me more than himself as he sacrificed something that was his in order to make me happy. That's exactly what God's talking about.

Hey, when you bring your tithe because where your treasure is, that's where you're, you cannot possibly bring that 10%. You can't do that and not be saying to God, Hey, God, here's the thing. I love you more than anything I could buy with this money. I I love you more than the dress at h and m.

I love you more than my Disney plus subscription. I love you more than going to the DC Steakhouse.

I love you more. And so, I'm willing to get because I love you more than anything I could buy with the money that I'm giving you. I cannot give without giving my heart but here's the converse, you ready? You cannot withhold the tithe and not withhold your heart. So, you say, oh, I love God with all my heart but no, I'm not.

You cannot withhold your treasure and not withhold your heart in the same moment. That's why God said, hey, if you're coming back to me, if gonna know this is sincere, show me, begin to tithe. Let's go back to Matthew six because Jesus goes on to say, hey, there's a second test here.

He says, hey, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is your that's a whole sermon. He's just simply saying this, if you misunderstand

money, your eyes will be every other decision you make in this life are gonna be in darkness, but if you understand what money is for, you'll have a clear perspective in life. But now he gives the second test. Here it is. No one can serve two masters.

You will either hate the one and love the other or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other and the ready, you cannot serve both God and money. You can't. One of those will be your master. One of those will be your idol, your God. One of those will be number one in your life.

Remember we talked two weeks ago, we talked about this idea, hey, God, God has to be number one. He will never settle be number two in your life. And then we ask this question, what is it that God could ask for that your answer would be no?

And guys, if you come back and you go, hey, no, no, no, no. When it comes to the tithe, God, my answer is no. Guess what you have just said? Money is higher to me than God. I made money my master. Jesus said, I didn't say it. He said, you cannot serve two masters. You will only choose one or the other in that moment.

Remember Israel, Israel has run off because they want wealth, they want money. The reason they're serving false idols wasn't because they liked the idols, it was because they wanted the money they thought they were getting from the idol. No wonder Jesus or God said to them, hey, if you're serious about coming back to me,

give me your tithe because you're either going to have me as number one or you're going to have acquiring wealth as number one. You choose which master is your master, but you can't have two. There's this incredible moment in Mark chapter six,

Jesus is sitting outside the treasury of the temple. People are coming with their tithe. They're dropping money in the offering plate and there's some rather wealthy people who are bringing substantial amounts and putting it in the offering plate and then comes a widow. The widow comes

and she drops into the offering plate basically 2 pennies, two, we call them widow's mics today. When Jesus sees this, he jumps to his feet, he turns to his side, he says, come, come, come, come here. Did you see what just happened? And they're like, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, what happened? We didn't see anything.

The woman, the woman who dropped her 2 pennies in the offering, did you see that? And they go, well, yeah, but why is that exciting? And Jesus says, because it was everything she had and she still brought it.

Here's what you know, a woman who would bring everything she has, she loves God more than her money. Matter of fact, she loves God more than what she, that might've been what she was going to buy lunch with. And she goes, God, I love you more than my next meal.

Maybe that's what she was going to pay rent with. And she goes, God, I love you more than my next rent payment. And here's the other thing, you know, she trusts God more than she trusts money

because how easy would a minute say, hey, look, I can't give right now because I've got bills to pay and and and I need the money in order to do it and he goes, no, God, know what, I'm gonna give to you because I'm just telling you, I trust you to take care of me even though my bank account doesn't look like it.

Literally, exactly the conversation God's having with us. Do you love me more than what you can buy and do you trust me even when your bills get scary? Who's your God? And you and I today have the same opportunity that widow had, that Jesus would jump to his feet when he sees our response and he would say, look at that.

Now I know. Now I know where their heart is and I know where their trust is because they chose me over money.

Here's a couple of things you and I need to know about the tithe. Okay. So Leviticus chapter 27, here's what it says about the tithe, the 10% that we're supposed to give.

The tithe of everything of the land. You gotta remember these guys are farmers, so it's using that as the context. Whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, if he was saying it today, he'd say a tenth of your paycheck belongs to the Lord, it is

holy to the Lord. You you get what he's saying? Hey, woah woah woah woah woah. That tenth that tenth of whatever your paycheck is, it's not yours. It belongs to God. It doesn't belong to you. It's his.

If that's true, then what does it mean if I keep what belongs to him? What does that make me? If I keep what belongs to someone else? I want you to imagine this for a minute. I want you to imagine that you're, at the mall and in a little while you realize I dropped my wallet

and so you go asking, hey, has anyone turned in a wallet? No, nobody's turned in a wallet and then you notice on your receipts, you're getting all sorts of charges on your charge card and you're, what the how is this happening? I had my license in there. Whoever picked up my wallet knew it belonged to me

and yet they had the audacity to spend my money, to steal my money and and it's not like they didn't know. They knew who it belonged to and they took it anyways.

You realize what the verse just said. You picked up God's wallet. He just told you that's my money and we had the audacity then to spend it on ourselves.

Second thing you need to know about the tithe, Proverbs chapter three verse nine says this, it says, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.

Then your barns will be filled overflowing and your vats will brim over like new. He just says, hey, look, look, look, when you go to give the tithe, it needs to be the first, the first thing because it needs to be the highest priority. It needs to be the first bill you pay is your tithe. So,

All right. I got $10 here. So the question is, which one is the tithe? Which one? Not all of them. He's letting you keep 9. You still get to go to the movies. Okay. Which one's the tithe? The first one. And here's all he's saying. He's saying is, look, the first one.

Because when you do that, you're saying I'm more important than every other bill in your life. I am I am number one. So, I take my tithe, I pay my tithe, and then and then, I do I do my house payment, and, I, you know, I got a car payment, and of course, there's, the electric bill, and then there's insurance,

and oh, cred, my kids are in club sports.

But here's what he says, look, the rest of it is your discretion. It's just that the first, the first tenth has to be mine because that's the way you declare that I'm first in your life. What if I do this?

What if what if instead I, I I pay my mortgage and, I pay my car payment and I pay my insurance and I pay my electric bill and the kids needed braces and, yeah, club sports and then it turns out I've still got a tenth left and so then I take my tenth and I give that to God. Is that a tithe? Is it a tithe? It's not the first.

It's not a tithe. I gave God my leftover. It just so happened I was lucky enough to have a tenth, but I gave God a leftover. I gave him old meatloaf from my refrigerator. And here's the why that's a problem, because if I wait to see how much I have left, it doesn't take faith.

When I give the first, then I have to say, God, I'm gonna trust you that the rest of it is gonna be enough. That God, you're better with 90% than I would have been controlling a 100%. It takes faith to give the first, it takes no faith to give God a leftover. It's not a tithe, it's an offering, it's not a tithe.

What are the things people say when they struggle with the tithe, when they're going, oh, you know, you know, I get it, I get it, but here's why it doesn't apply to me. So some people say, well, Lynn, here's the idea, tithing is an old testament concept

and so there it doesn't apply to me because we're new testament Christians and it's true that an awful lot of the tithe is discussed in the old testament. You know what else is discussed in the old testament? Murder, adultery, lying, and all of that is New Testament. But what if, what if Jesus in the New Testament said,

you should be tithing, then that would make it a new testament concept. So here we go, it's Matthew chapter 23 verse 23, this is what Jesus said. He's talking to the Pharisees, he's giving them a hard time and he says, what sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law, you Pharisees, you hypocrites,

for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb. They're taking seeds from their herb farm and they're counting them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ten. Oh, here's one for God. He said, you're careful to do that, okay?

But you've ignored some more important aspects like justice and mercy and faith. And then here's what he says, you should tithe, yes, but do not neglect some of the more important things about following me. So Jesus literally said, you and I should be tithered. It's a new testament idea.

Here's another thing that people say when they're

struggling with a tithe, they say, when I have more money. See, right now things are tight and I'm telling you, I get to the end of the month and there's hardly anything, so when I have more money, I will tithe. Here's what you need to know if that's what you're telling yours. You're diluting yourself

because every single statistic says this, that when people become more wealthy, the percentage of people who tithe drops because they become in love with their money. The most faithful people to tithing are people who it's a big decision because they don't have a lot of extra. Third thing,

I don't have enough. So you look here's the deal. I've I've looked at my bills and and all that and and literally, if I were to tithe, I would be in the red every I I don't I cannot possibly afford to tithe. Okay. Let's say that's true.

Let's say you've cut everything out in your budget that's frivolous. You've cut all of your subscriptions out. You you you stopped going to, Starbucks, you started going to McDonald's and getting coffee instead, right? You've cut everything out and and you literally go, hey, at the end of the month, I don't have enough.

And let's say that God isn't faithful, he doesn't keep his promises that when you tithe, he'll bless you and take care of you and God lets you down and so you get to the end of the month and you don't have enough because God didn't provide. Okay. So someone's not going to get paid, but here's still the question,

who do you not want to pay? Who do you want to disappoint at the end of the month? Would you rather disappoint Visa or disappoint God? And I'm just going to tell you as a Christ follower, I'll disappoint Visa all day long before I'll disappoint my Lord. It's not a decision.

And then let's go back Malachi chapter three, because after all this, he's going to come to you and say, Hey, I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you a challenge. Malachi chapter three, and now we get to verse 10.

Here's what he says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. What does he say? It's look, look, look, bring the 10% I asked you to do it, bring it, bring it into the church so that there will be enough in the church so that I can change the world so that can do kingdom work.

And then next word, you ready? Test me.

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 to you that you will not have room enough that he says, look, look, I get it. I get this is hard and I get that it's scary for you. I get that your heart cringes when you so here's the deal. Put me to the test

and watch me that if I won't just bless you in ways you could not have I'll do things for you that you never even considered. Test me and see if I'll be faithful when you're faithful to me. And here's the incredible thing about what God just did. Did you know that all through scripture it says, do not test God.

Matter of fact, Jesus, when he is being tempted in the wilderness by Satan, Satan takes him to the top of the temple and he says, Jesus, jump, jump because you're the son of God. He'll send his angels to save you. Everybody will see it and they'll immediately know you're Messiah. This is gonna be like a shortcut

to everybody recognizing you and Jesus' response to what Satan proposes is, thou shalt not test God. And then God comes back and the one time in scripture he says, I get it. I get how terrifying this is. I get I get how hard it is, but you know what? I also get how important it is

that you would choose to give me your heart, that you would choose to trust me in this thing that is scary for you, so go ahead, this is the one time, test me. You do what I've asked you to do, see whether or not I'll be faithful to you.

So then you and I get to decide, do I accept the challenge? Here's what's interesting. When God said to the children of Israel, Hey, come back to me. He didn't say, Hey, tell me how much you love me. Tell me how wonderful I am. He said, Look, I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions. He has the same call today.

Don't tell me how much you love you. Don't tell me how much you trust Jesus. Show me, show me by your actions.

And you and I have the opportunity to do what the widow did two thousand years ago. Step forward in faith, give our hearts, trust the God that we're honoring and bring Jesus to his feet to applaud. And that he would say, that's exactly what I was hoping that you would do. So let's talk about how to put this to action. So

I'm going to ask you to consider, would you tithe for ninety days? Would you just say, hey, God, I'm going to do this. It's terrifying, but I'm going to do this and I'm going to see if you keep your word to me, I'm going to tithe for ninety days. We've done this before. We called it the ninety day challenge.

And here's what our promise is. We believe so much that God will be true and faithful to his word, that if you tithe for ninety days and God doesn't keep his promise, you come back to us, we'll refund you everything you gave over those ninety days.

Can I tell you that we've done this four or five times? We've had four people come back, not one of them went the ninety days, they went thirty days.

And I can already promise you, if you make this commitment, it's probably gonna get hard at some point because Satan's not gonna let you give your heart and give your trust to God and not make it hard. Make the ninety days, see if God isn't faithful

after you get scared a little bit. So if you're willing to do that, in the seat back right in front of you, there's a card like this, dig in there to find it. One side is white and the other side is black. We're going to do the white side today.

And right at the bottom, there's a box right there that says, I'm making a commitment, I'm going to tithe for ninety days and just see if God is faithful and by marking that box, we'll know that's what you've done and

if God doesn't keep his promise, you can come back and say, I want all my money back and we'll give it back to you. Okay? Some of you in the room are going to go, Oh, Lynn, I love God and that's just a road too far. I can't go. I can't, I can't even imagine 10%. It's just, it's beyond what I can think. Okay.

But we should do something right. We should step in at some level. So if you're in the room and you go, Lynn, I've never given before.

Then right there at the very bottom, there's a box that she just says, would you be a first time giver? Would you for the very first time give a gift and and give something that reflects your love for God? Would you just for the first time do something? Some of us in the room, you've been giving every once in a while,

but it's once in a while. Would you become an intentional giver? In other words, hey, I'm going to give a certain amount and I'm going to give it consistently. I'll sign up, you know, on auto deduct or whatever, you know, whatever that is, but I'll give consistently and let me just tell you, maybe it ought to be 5%.

You say, hey, Lynn, I'm not ready for the tithe, but I'll do 5% this year, next year I'll try to do the other, I'll get to the tithe in two years. Someone may say, well, Lynn, I'll do 2%

and then I'll do two, it'll take me five years, but I'll get to the tithe and if you're willing to do that, you go to the second box, you check the second box, you go, look, I'm going to be an intentional giver. The third box says, I'm a tither. We've already talked about tithing. The fourth box is a generous giver.

It's someone who says, you know what, Lynn, you didn't have to convince me that I've been tithing and I'm telling you, God has blessed me and God has done such and I just want, I want to be in. I want to do even more for the kingdom. I want to, I want to ramp it up.

And you go to the fourth box and you go, Lynn, I'm going to be generous. I'm going to consistently give over the tithe.

Hear my heart as I say this. I couldn't ask you to think about the fourth box if I didn't live in the fourth box. And I want you to know that Lisa and I have consistently for years given way above the tithe. And you know why we've done that? Because

we want to be we want to be part of the story of what God is doing. We want to see more lives saved. We want to see more children fed in Cayenda. We want to see Christians grow in their faith, and we want to be part of that. And so we've

been generous in what we do. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you just a moment to pray and think about what you want to mark on this card. Maybe you want to talk to your spouse, say, hey, what are we going to do?

But here's the question I want you to ask yourself. Here's the prayer I want you to do in the next moment. Would you ask God, hey God, what are you hoping I'll do today? What would bring a smile to your face? So go ahead, just take a moment to pray, mark the card.

Alright. Here's what we're gonna do in just a moment. In a moment, we're gonna leave at every single one of the doors. There's gonna be somebody there with a basket.

You can drop your card in the basket. If if you just said, I'm not in at all. I'm not in. Just take and drop an blank card in there. No one will ever know. Just drop it. I don't wanna I don't wanna put undue pressure on you. I don't want you to feel weird or awkward. Just drop a blank card, and no one will ever know. Let's

pray. Hey, dearest heavenly father. This one scares us. This this one just reaches right into the very inside of us, and it and it just terrifies us because the truth is we've trusted

trusted money to be the thing that buys us happiness and the idea of giving some the sacrificing some of that, it just it just seems mind blowing. And yet you understood that about us. It's exactly why you asked us to tithe because it wasn't possible to tithe and not bring my heart.

To say, God, I love you more than anything I could buy with this 10%. It wasn't possible to tithe without saying, God, I trust you. I trust you for the rest of my bills and for the rest of my expenses, and so I give it first. And God, here's here's my prayer that every single one of us in the room will simply do

what you were hoping we would do today. And this I pray in Jesus name. Amen.