Talking about Tithing and a pastor's naked thoughts...
Tonight we begin a new series called "First Fresh Flash". It's a new 2-week series on putting God first in our finances as we talk about generosity and tithing.
I'm not gonna lie, talking about this tender topic is something that can get me pretty nerved up, but I've noticed over the years of ministry that I feel less and less intimidated and sheepish about diving into the dicey deep of stewardship with Christ-Followers.
I noticed something as I was reading through the New Testament this year that doesn't directly relate to tithing though it has huge implications as it relates to the "firstness" of God, or as it's called in theology, His Supremacy.
I was reading the part where Jesus was calling people to follow him and I noticed something I'd never seen before...
It's interesting how we're living in a new normal in neo-orthodoxy where people can say they follow Christ all the while rejecting him First Place in their lives, as if the two don't go hand in hand. Jesus wasn't so quick to let us divorce these two sentiments. The call to following him was also the call to making him first in all things.
As we move into this new series I pray I can be a pure vessel to voice this distinction so people will see that God wants to be our First Love in First Place, he is jealous for that exclusive place. He loves to give good gifts to his children and loves to sharing blessing and relationship with us, but he will not share first place...he will not share that place of supreme glory.
I pray that this weekend we will capture a vision much like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6 where he "saw the Lord high and lifted up, the train of his robe filling the temple and the angles saying to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the one who was, and is, and is to come." That we would join the prophet in covering our faces in his glorious presence, undone by his otherness, left with no other response than to say, "Here am I, Lord, send me."
High and Lifted up, us dethroned, Him enthroned...taking his rightful place.
But even as I write this and we embark on a new journey into a new season of higher stakes and greater risks, I shutter at the thought of sharing on behalf of God regarding this subject. I need God's power to fill me and fuel me to share with humility and authority this weekend. May God move in power as our church learns to put him First and Foremost.
"He must become greater, we must become lesser." - John 3:30
I'm not gonna lie, talking about this tender topic is something that can get me pretty nerved up, but I've noticed over the years of ministry that I feel less and less intimidated and sheepish about diving into the dicey deep of stewardship with Christ-Followers.
I noticed something as I was reading through the New Testament this year that doesn't directly relate to tithing though it has huge implications as it relates to the "firstness" of God, or as it's called in theology, His Supremacy.
I was reading the part where Jesus was calling people to follow him and I noticed something I'd never seen before...
Luke 9:57-62
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me. ”But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
It feels like Jesus’ response is unfeeling and borderline irrational. But these stories are not about how God doesn’t care about funerals or families. It hit me as I read this text that he is going after the use of the word “First”.
He is challenging/opposing this idea that you can FOLLOW God without putting Him FIRST.
As the Divine Provocateur, He is provoking people to ask him a question because his request offends them at the core of their being and belief system. Can you feel the question rising up in your spirit even now? I can…and it goes something like this inside me…
Who do you think you are?
Don’t you care about family and friends and funerals? But I don’t think Jesus was saying that funerals and family and friends don’t matter to him, he was picking up on the usage and placement of the word “first” in the conversations and establishing his primacy in the pecking order of important things. He is primal and primary. He is the precedent and priority.
You can almost hear them angrily responding: “Who do you think you are asking that of me?”
It’s clear who Jesus thinks he is. He thinks he is First.
God owns the word, First.
God owns the place, First.
God owns the name, First.
It's interesting how we're living in a new normal in neo-orthodoxy where people can say they follow Christ all the while rejecting him First Place in their lives, as if the two don't go hand in hand. Jesus wasn't so quick to let us divorce these two sentiments. The call to following him was also the call to making him first in all things.
As we move into this new series I pray I can be a pure vessel to voice this distinction so people will see that God wants to be our First Love in First Place, he is jealous for that exclusive place. He loves to give good gifts to his children and loves to sharing blessing and relationship with us, but he will not share first place...he will not share that place of supreme glory.
I pray that this weekend we will capture a vision much like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6 where he "saw the Lord high and lifted up, the train of his robe filling the temple and the angles saying to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the one who was, and is, and is to come." That we would join the prophet in covering our faces in his glorious presence, undone by his otherness, left with no other response than to say, "Here am I, Lord, send me."
High and Lifted up, us dethroned, Him enthroned...taking his rightful place.
But even as I write this and we embark on a new journey into a new season of higher stakes and greater risks, I shutter at the thought of sharing on behalf of God regarding this subject. I need God's power to fill me and fuel me to share with humility and authority this weekend. May God move in power as our church learns to put him First and Foremost.
"He must become greater, we must become lesser." - John 3:30
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