If God Owns It All Why Do We Hold Back

If the word “giving” instantly makes you think “money,” this conversation widens the lens fast. We’re taking an honest gut check on generosity and asking a simple question with serious weight: can God trust us with what’s already in our hands?

We talk about Christian stewardship in the full sense of the word: time, talents, and treasures. That includes tithing, but it also includes how we spend our hours, how we use our skills, and what we believe about ownership. When we remember that God owns it all, giving stops feeling like a fee and starts looking like worship. Along the way, we dig into Scripture that connects generosity to discipleship, faith, and the condition of our heart, not just the size of a gift.

You’ll hear a memorable story that exposes a consumer mindset, a challenging “if everyone gave like me” test, and a reframing of tithing as a faith practice meant to grow trust. We also look at God’s ultimate example of generosity in John 3:16 and Jesus’ praise of the widow who gives two small coins, showing how God measures sacrifice and sincerity.

If you’ve been stuck between guilt and avoidance, this is a better path: clarity, gratitude, and a practical next step. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Tithing As Worship Not A Show

God Owns Everything We Manage

The If Everyone Gave Like Me Test

A Five Week Tithing Challenge Story

God’s Gift Sets The Standard

The Widow’s Two Coins And Heart

Start Living By Start Giving

Three Views Of What We Own

Invitation To Surrender And Serve

Prayer And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 1:05

And for those of you that get to stay and spend some time with me, we're going to be talking about a subject today that I think is something that's important that every once in a while we just need to give ourselves a little bit of a gut check and say, hey, is this something that I am doing? Is this something that I'm being faithful with? And that is the subject of giving. And when I say the word giving, I'm not just talking about our finances, though that's important. And I think God instructs us in here that we're supposed to spend time first fruits. There's a lot of different times. It's mentioned the word giving is mentioned over 1,500 times in the Bible. So in my mind, if it's mentioned many, many times, it's probably important. So it's good for us to revisit that. But I think it's also important when we talk about that, that we're not just talking about finances. I think we need to be talking about our time. I think we need to be talking about our talents, and then we need to be talking about our treasures, the things that God has blessed us with, so that we can be able to bless others. I like what Luke says in chapter 16, verse 11. He says, Jesus made an amazing statement here. If you cannot be trusted with worldly wealth, how can God trust you with true riches? And I think when we talk about this subject, you know, we came, this is a perfect example. We came here this morning and we we spent time worshiping God in different ways, didn't we? We sang songs together and we worshiped God. We met around the table and we worshiped God. We're able to give of our tithes. That's another opportunity for us to worship God. And so when we think about all these different acts that we do, just within the time that we're together for this hour, hour and 15 minutes this morning, it's all about God. It's all about worshiping Him. And it's all about giving of the things that He has already blessed us with. And how can we do that? Because tithing is an act of worship. It's not just songs and messages and communion and prayer time. It's all of those things. I heard a story one time, and I think it's there was a man that decided to take his family to church. And he typically didn't do that. He wasn't a man that typically attended church, but he decided that he would that day. He took his wife and he took his children and they sat there. And as soon as the service was over, he immediately left. He went out and he got in his car. And on the way home, he was saying, Yeah, he said, Man, that music was really loud today. That guy spoke for a really long time. I didn't really care for that. And he just kept going on and on and on and on and talking about all the negative things that he didn't like about that. And his son, who sat quietly in the back seat, finally said, You have to admit, Dad, it wasn't a bad show for a buck. Because he had observed that his dad had put a dollar into the offering plate as it was passed that particular day. It wasn't a bad show for a buck. You know, and I think out of the mouths of Baids, it's important for us to understand the importance of us being able to give of our time, to give of our talents, to give of our treasures to God and do the things that He wants us to do. We only have what we have because of His generosity in the first place. You know, God has blessed us with all the things that we have, and He is very pro generous. And each day, probably most of us sit down at least twice a day and gather around a table and eat a meal, don't we? And I think every time we do that, it's an opportunity, it's a gift that's been given to us from God, and it's important for us to understand that. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, it says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarded of those who diligently seek him. And so I think as we look at, as we look at the subject of tithing this morning, both giving of our time, giving of our talents that God has blessed us with, and giving us giving of God to the treasures that we have, I think that we can look at it from different angles. And the first is that it's an act of holiness. Um, Leviticus chapter 30 says, a tithe of everything from the lamb, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. I think it's important if we understand one simple concept. God owns it all. Can we agree on that? I mean, God owns it all, He has just entrusted us to be able to use it in the way that we feel best. You know, I this morning I had all my grandkids, the Knucklehead Club, they were sitting in the truck with me and we're driving here, and we saw a couple deer running in the field, didn't we, Jackson? You saw that. And we saw these deer running in the field, and probably when we see that, and I think it's just a reminder to me that that's God's creation. But sometimes when we put up fences and the animal's different, let's just say it's a cow, that's ours, isn't it? That belongs to us. And so it's a good opportunity for us to kind of just stop for a moment and realize that it's all God's. Everything belongs to Him. In Luke chapter 14, verse 33, it says, in the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple. It goes on and it starts talking in verse 26. It says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. And when we see this word hate in here, we need to understand that in the Jewish culture, what the word hate meant was lesser love. And so it's important for us to understand that he's not saying you're supposed to hate your mom and your dad. It's just meaning that you don't put your mom and dad ahead of your relationship with Jesus Christ. That you don't put your the anything, your treasures, your time, your talents, whatever it is that you have, that you're not letting those get in the way to be a stumbling block between you and your relationship with God. Because our holiness to God is priority and needs to be a part of our daily lives. Luke chapter 6, verse 38, it says, give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. I think it's important every once in a while, you know, and I and I try to do this myself, you know, when I think about the church, or I think about I've asked been asked to serve on different boards of organizations. And so when I sit in those one of those seats, there's an importance that goes along with that. But I have to give myself a gut check every once in a while and say, if everybody did it like me, if everybody gave of their time like me to the church, what would that look like? If everybody gave and used their talents for the church like I do, what would that look like? If everybody gave of their finances like I do, what would that look like? Would the church be thriving and growing and there's the and there's more money than we know what to do with? Or would we be constantly trying to figure out, well, where is it that we can get somebody to teach a Sunday school class because we need that talent? Where is it that we could get someone that could give of their time to come and help to get buildings ready for programs so that we can create spaces where people can come and learn about God? But if everybody did it like me, would the job get done? And I think when I give myself that gut check, sometimes I have to sit there and say, no. If everybody gave of their time, talents, and their treasures like I do, it maybe wouldn't get done the way that God sees it needing to be done. And so it's hard for us to understand that. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be, also, is what Matthew says in chapter six. And tithing is one of God's roles, and it's not just a test to see how much money the church can raise. Tithing is a test of faith to help us grow in our relationship with Christ. Because I can tell you this: God doesn't need your money. God needs your heart. He needs everything about you. He already has everything. He's the owner of everything, the scriptures tell us. And so he doesn't really need that. He needs our heart, he needs our commitment where we're saying we're willing to give of our time, we're willing to give of our talents, we're willing to give of our treasures as we seek to be followers of God and discipling others to do the same as we go through life. The church that I attend, and um he made a statement a while back. We were talking about giving it our church, and he made this statement, but he said before he did, he said, I got the permission from the elders to say this. I did not get the permission from the elders this morning to say this. So I'm not I'm not making any commitments to anyone here this morning, but I will say this. He made this statement that said, What I would like you to do is give a tithe for five weeks. A tenth of all that you have coming in for five weeks. And at the end of the five weeks, if you don't feel that God has blessed you in some way and that you don't feel like you're in a better position than you were five weeks ago, then please come back to the church and we would like to give you all of that money back that you've given for the last five weeks. Now, I didn't get permission this morning to say that, so don't come back in five weeks and say, hey, we'd we'd love you to cut a check for us. But he said that at our church because he did have permission. And he said, I've said that in other churches that I preached at when I had the permission from the eldership. And he said, not one time has anybody ever come back and said, you know what? I would really love to have that money back because things have gone upside down since I started giving to God. In fact, it's the very opposite, typically, when we give of our time, our talents, our treasures, that God blesses us beyond an abundance, beyond what we can even begin to understand. And I think it's just important for us to realize how good of a God He is, that He loves us and that He will provide for us and that He cares for us. John 3 16 and 17. Very important scripture as we look through the text. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And it goes on and it said, For God did not send his son to the world, condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. You know, when we think about the subject of giving, there's no one that has given more than God himself. He gave his son, his son went to a cross. We just celebrated that at Easter. We celebrated the the resurrection of how he's alive, but before he was alive, he was dead. And he did that because of us. He knew that we would fall short, he knew that we would have sin in our lives, he knew that we would need to have some other w means for us to be able to spend eternity with him in heaven, and that would come through his son. So when we think about the subject of giving, we think about these passages of scripture here in John 3, 16 and 17, where it says he gave his only son, and how important that is. Luke chapter 21 says this in verse 1 and 4. I like it, says, as Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Truly I tell you, he said, This poor widow this has put more in than all the others. All those people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put all she had to live on. And I think about that passage of scripture, and I think it helps us to understand more. It's not about the money, it's about our heart, it's about us doing the things that God wants us to do in the ways that God would want us to do them, and He's gonna be with us every single step of the way. I believe we can start living when we start giving. And it's when we get that mindset within our mind that we need to do that. And it's not just something that we casually do, it's not something that we just do, but it becomes a part of our DNA, and when we get that blessing of our time, you know, as far as I know, you guys have the same amount of time as I do. We got 24 hours in a day, unless they start making more of it. And our bodies probably aren't designed to handle more than that anyway. We have to stop every once in a while. And so we have so many hours in a day, and I know we have to, we probably, many of us have to work, and so we have that, and we have travel time, and we have times that we sit around tables, but then we have some other time too. And we have to figure out how are we going to best manage that time so that we can use it in a way that would be pleasing to God. Many of us have talents, some have much more talent than others, and so are we willing to use those talents? Are we willing to use those in ways that would be pleasing to him? Because it's not about the size of the gift, it's about the size of your heart. It's about the commitment level that you have for him. And so, my guess is this morning there are um a few different groups of people, and I think all of you probably land in one group this morning. The first group says this everything that I have is mine. My time, my talents, my treasures, they belong to me, and I'm gonna decide what it is that I'm gonna do with those. The second group is says, My time, my talents, my treasures belong to God, but only 10% of that belongs to him, and the other 90% I can use how I feel fit throughout my daily life. And the third group says this it all belongs to God. It's all his 100%. My time, my talents, my treasures, they all belong to God. They don't belong to anybody else, they don't belong to me. Yeah, I worked hard for them, but you know why I worked hard for them? Because he blessed me with the ability to work hard. Plain and simple. And so when we work hard and we have money and we we strive and we do things, then he creates opportunities for us to give. And there's a radical difference between these groups. The first one says, first I share with God when I want to. The second says, I will share with God because I have to. And the third will say it's all God's and He shares with me. I think it's important for us to understand that this morning as we dive into this and think about that. We're gonna come to a time of invitation, and there may be somebody here this morning that needs to give their life to Christ. And if so, I know there's people that would love to um sit down with you and talk with you about what that decision looks like. And for many of us, maybe this morning it was just one of those mornings where we say, you know, all right, he's right. I do need to give myself a gut check. I have some talents, and maybe I haven't been using those talents for God. Maybe it is that you have some spare time, something that I'm not possessing this time of the year as I'm preparing for camp. I don't have a lot of that sitting around. But maybe there are some of you that do, and they're saying maybe there's something that I could do to use that time for God. Or there may be some of you that are sitting there and you're sitting on treasures that he has blessed you with, and so you're trying to figure out, well, what is the best way that I can do that? And I can tell you that I don't know the answer to that. But God does. And so you can spend some time with him and praying about that. And my guess is that he will open up doorways, he will create paths for people to come into your life that are gonna help you to understand the best way that you can do the things that God wants you to do, as we're being faithful with our time, our talents, and our treasures, giving our heart to God. So I want to pray with you as a church, and then we're gonna come to a time of invitation. And if there's somebody that um needs to make that decision this morning or needs something on your heart, then let's do that. Let's pray.