11/15/18 TREASURES TIME TALENTS
God deserves 100%, not just 10%.
He showers His wealth on us.
Dedicate at least 10% of treasure, time, talent in ministry.
THINK ABOUT THIS...
God provides for all people, believers and non-believers (Matthew 5:45), and He is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, especially to His children (James 1:17).
He provides for our needs and blesses us with the extras. This includes natural and supernatural, material and spiritual provisions (Romans 8:32).
As our Creator and as our Father in heaven, He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
God showed the Old Testament believers that faith, gratitude, responsibility is demonstrated in returning a portion of His merciful provision to and in, dedicated service and ministry. All of life belongs to God, but God lavishes us with His wealth, because He loves us.
The 10% (the tithe) is just the beginning of our spiritual commitment to His service and ministry. While it is true that He owns us and we owe Him everything, God allows us to enjoy His blessings. A true believer gives his/her whole life to God, but only a portion can be given to full time ministry and service. Some people are able to give the major portion of their lives because God has called them to dedicated, specific ministries.
We usually think about 10% of our money (and we should), but what happens if we also dedicate 10% of our time. There are 168 hours in a week. It is not unreasonable for (non-ministry) believers to dedicate 16 hours a week to specific ministry. A believer may need to start with a shorter time commitment, because our society is so far removed from serving God fully through local church ministries. But time spent in worship, study, music, outreach, service to others in and through the local church can easily reach the 10% level.
As I said, all of our life belongs to God and believers surrender their entire life into the will of God. But dedicated service, ministry does not usually get a viable portion of the believer's talents (electronic, handy work, mechanical, medical, mercy ministries).
The local church is either totally ineffective or is greatly disabled because believers have not caught the vision of serving God, not only with their all, in the general sense, but with their specially dedicated TREASURES, TIME and TALENTS.
