How Do You Honor the Lord?

Offering Talk for January 8

I love reading through the book of Proverbs to gain wisdom and insight. Proverbs was written by King Solomon, who was regarded as the wisest man of his day. He was also one of the wealthiest people of his day. His practical instructions in the book of Proverbs can pave a straight path in life for you.

As we approach the offering time, let me share with you a couple of verses from Proverbs 3:9, 10. It says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

Verse nine gave a command to honor the Lord with our wealth. So, the first lesson here is that what we give to the Lord through our offering is about honoring Him. Does your giving honor the Lord?

The next part of the passage, “with your wealth,” might stop some of you. You might think that is easy for a rich guy like Solomon. Yet, you are richer than you think! $2,100 is the yearly median income globally. It is estimated that if you make $61K annually, that puts you in the top 10% of the world’s income. The bottom 10% of the U.S. income distribution falls in the upper 30% of the global income distribution. So, from the world’s perspective, we ARE wealthy.

The final part of verse nine says we are to give the first fruits of all our crops. How do we non-farmers do that? It simply means we honor the Lord by giving to Him FIRST of all that we make. When you write the first check or make the automated withdrawal the first thing after you get paid, you are fulfilling this verse.

Finally, I love verse ten which follows the command of verse nine. It is a promise that begins with the word then. In other words, do what verse nine says, and then you will receive the blessings listed in verse ten. We don’t give so that we can get. We give out of love for what the Lord has done for us. We give to honor Him. The results are, however, returned back to us in blessings.

So, this morning, as we take up this offering, the question I want to ask you is how are you honoring the Lord? Let’s give a gift that truly will honor the Lord!