I think it is wonderful to be with you today! Our Lord Himself meets us in the music, prayers, and now His wonderful Word. God is so good! He has given us such love...we can love ourselves and we can love others, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US! What joy! He supplies so much! YOU ARE RICH! Even the overflow from Him gives us more than we deserve.

Now, from the Scripture, some of you might be getting a little bit edgy. Here you thought that messages on money come in the fall. This one is six months early! What could be the problem? You might have received our church newsletter, Connection, this week. I shared with you the concern for our ongoing ministries together. The money for ministry is far behind the budget. With all the exciting things just beginning to happen here, I do not want us to get discouraged. I want us to stretch as never before in MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, AND EDUCATION.

We have a great staff to help us along the way. We want to reach out even more to tell others of the good news in Jesus Christ. We want to keep building up our faith in Christ in studies. And we want to work on our building space to help bring this about. All this takes commitment of our time, our talent, and yes, our money ... money that God has placed in our hands to be released for His wonderful work.

If we all tithed, there would never be a problem. Conservative numbers would place our giving twice what it is right now. But sometimes we get our eyes off of Jesus, and onto our own worries. We forget. We forget how rich God has been toward us. He sent His Son to die for us...AND to live in us. But we forget. We must be RICH TOWARD GOD! This includes, but is not limited to, our money.

The Lord prompted me to present this parable. I want the Lord to say to us: "Good job! You are moving in the right direction! Only when that happens, will we begin to experience wonderful possibilities just waiting for us! Consider the story - let’s renew our commitment to Him today!

"Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." He was more concerned about getting his money than getting his life in order. "Solve my problems, Jesus." Even if Jesus did get into the middle of his difficulty, it was not going to disappear. Jesus observed a problem of the heart. And He got to the heart of the problem.

BEWARE AND BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST EVERY FORM OF GREED; FOR NOT EVEN WHEN ONE HAS AN ABUNDANCE DOES HIS LIFE CONSIST OF HIS POSSESSIONS. (Luke 12:15) We hear jokes about this: The one who dies with the most toys wins. Jack Benny, the famous comedian 50+ years ago, made jokes about his stinginess. A robber held him up. "Your money or your life!" A long pause from Jack Benny. The robber shouts at him, "WELL?" And Benny responds, "I’m thinking about it!"

What does your life consist of? What consumes you? What motivates you to get up and face a new day? This farmer motivated himself with making a good living. Jesus was not against this. There are rewards for those who work. Problems came when he hit it just right with a great harvest. Then another and another. GREED, an excessive desire to have more, crept into his life. He asked a great question: "What shall I do?" It is one that we all must ask ourselves.

Here marks the fork in the road for all of us. Which way to go? Rich toward myself - or rich toward God? We like to think that we can handle our wealth...that God is pleased with us. Then, we stumble over the farmer who shows us greed and fear growing out of control.

We are always told that you cannot take it with you. This fellow understood that. He simply wanted to keep it as long as he lived! "What shall I do?" "This is what I shall do...I will tear down... and build bigger barns." Even at this point the man was not in trouble. Then, he revealed the problem of his heart. He could not trust God to handle his life. Therefore, he could not be rich toward God. "I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods...eat, drink and be merry." "I want to keep what I have for myself!" He lived on greed and fear, just like the rest of the world. We come to the heart of the problem. Only then, God called him "Fool!"

If we stay around people like this farmer for too long, we discover we can become just like him. Every Christian faces this problem of the heart: CAN I TRUST GOD TO SUPPLY ALL MY NEEDS? If the answer is "No," we build bigger "barns" to hold our supply. Our "barns" in the modern world look like better investments and stock options and anything we can handle to feel secure. When people retire, there is a deep-seated fear that money will run out before we do. "Getting old is not for weaklings!" Here is one more of the many promises we have: I HAVE BEEN YOUNG AND NOW AM OLD, AND I HAVE NOT SEEN THE RIGHTEOUS FORSAKEN, OR HIS DESCENDANTS BEGGING BREAD. (Ps 37.23, 24)

So, if you and I embrace Jesus Christ, how do we live for Him in a world that grabs and hordes and keeps and shuts out others? Well, of course, WE LIVE BY FAITH IN CHRIST! Ah! There it is. We know what we are supposed to do, but we often have a problem with our hearts. So, we are at the HEART OF THE PROBLEM - Can I really trust God to meet my every need?

God has given us very clear direction to fight greed and fear when it comes to our money. He set up the tithe as a discipline. We learn that we can do more when He receives our first and our best we have. He knows the problem of our hearts, so He deals with the heart of our problem. When you are rich toward God, He will do His part, and the results will be spectacular!

We tithe and discover that we give God a test. Recall the words in Malachi 3. BRING THE WHOLE TITHE INTO THE STOREHOUSE, SO THAT THERE MAY BE FOOD IN MY HOUSE, AND TEST ME NOW IN THIS, IF I WILL NOT OPEN FOR YOU THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN AND POUR OUT FOR YOU A BLESSING UNTIL IT OVERFLOWS.

That is the test. If we do not do our part, He will not do His part. And He further tells us that we are ROBBING HIM. If God took you and me to court for robbing Him on this basis, would He have a case against us?

Some think tithing is no longer required, since Christ paid it all! Well, if that is the case, all that we have belongs to Him. Give everything, and let Him give back only what we need to live on. I don’t think anyone wants that. Tithing began before the Law. Abram won a major battle. He gave a tithe to Melchizedek, though he was not required to do so. (Genesis 14)

When tithing was placed as part of the Law, God gave a wonderful promise: you will have good crops and peace in the land! A great promise! (Leviticus 26.1-13) And a second tithe took care of those who were poor. And farmers left the corners of their fields with grain ready for harvest.. The poor had to work...but food was waiting for them. God knew what He was doing!

In Malachi, when we do our part, He promises to open the windows of heaven and give a blessing to us...and rebuke the devourer from our source of supply! "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can." (J. Wesley) I have tithed almost all my life. I can tell you that God can be trusted. I have no regrets...and our family knows what it means to trust God for everything!

I want to encourage you. You can be rich toward God, because He can be trusted to provide for you in the basic things of life. Each of us has the challenge of keeping food, clothes and shelter for our families and ourselves. We all want to live without the worry of going without these basic items. We also want comfort today, and security for tomorrow. We must do our part!

A skier careened down a mountain slope, took a wrong turn and found himself flying over a cliff to certain disaster. He was able to just grab a branch and stop his descent. "Help!" Over and over he called. A voice came back, "Here I am. I’ll help you!" "Where? I can’t see you!" shouted the skier. "I’m God. Trust me. This is what you do. Let go of the branch, put on your skis and I’ll get you down the hill." A long pause. "Is there anyone else up there?"

We have great things to do to bring glory to God. It will happen when we all determine to be rich toward God...to trust Him, even with our money! Maybe there are some here who are ready to respond to God and begin today to be rich toward God. Please do! Tell me how it goes. I will be there to encourage you!

I believe one of the best times to refresh our hearts and renew our commitment to Christ comes at the table of our Lord. Here we see again how rich God has been toward us! We remember the body of Christ broken for us. We weep when we remember He shed His blood to wash away all of our sins. We have fellowship with the living God! We can be rich toward God! Great possibilities await us when we begin. What a mighty God we love and serve.