Because our time and our money are the main things we can make choices about, they are also the core measure of whether Jesus is Lord

Offer means to give freely and not from obligation

God invites us to be generous people… and as it turns out it’s good for you…

Generosity makes us healthy. Chronic high blood pressure kills millions every year. But one study found generosity actually reduced blood pressure as much as medicine and exercise.
And it’s not just blood pressure. Generosity also lowers the risk of dementia, reduces anxiety and depression, improves chronic pain management, and more. “If you were somehow able to package this into a compound, you’d be a billionaire overnight,” said Stephen G. Post of Stony Brook University School of Medicine.

Generosity makes us happy. Giving our time and money to others gives us an emotional boost. Why? According to researcher Christian Smith it’s because feeling good is a product of doing good. It’s built into our neurochemistry.
Giving triggers feel-good chemicals like endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin. And it’s true across cultural and economic lines, too, according to a Harvard Business School study. It’s just part of being human.

Generosity lowers our stress. We don’t think of Scrooge as a mellow guy, do we? Here’s why. It turns out being stingy can actually raise our stress levels.
After hooking people up to heart monitors, researchers found that when they felt they were giving too little in a transaction it actually drove up their stress. Being generous, on the other hand, kept stress down. It’s like the Golden Rule in action.

Generosity improves our relationships. In a study of generosity and its effect in marriage, researchers found that the recipient of generosity expressed high levels of marital satisfaction, but so did the giver.
“[P]articipants’ reports of behaving in a generous fashion toward their spouse were linked to their own reports of marital quality,” said the researchers. “The extension of generosity toward the spouse was positively related to their own reports of marital satisfaction. . . .”

Generosity extends our lives. All this adds up to longer life-expectancy. In fact, one study of 2,000 people in Marin, California, found volunteering dramatically reduced mortality rates.
“Subjects who volunteered for two or more causes had a 63 percent lower rate of mortality than people who didn't volunteer during the study period,” said one report.

Offering Tithe is the act of giving the first 10% of your money to God as a symbol that Jesus is Lord of 100% of your finances.

The person who things the money he makes is meant mainly to increase his comforts on earth is a fool, Jesus says. Wise people know that their money belongs to god and should be used to show that God, and not money, is their treasure, their comfort, their joy, and their security.

John Piper

Offering Time is the act of giving part of your time in service to the broader purposes of the Kingdom at personal cost.

One of the dangers in talking about calling is that you can end up thinking that everything you do has to be in line with your sense of what your personal story is... which is dangerous.

There is a "work of service" (Eph:4:12) that is yours, but pursuing your own story leads to a loss of your story.

Small Group Questions:

1) Do you agree that how we spend our time and our money are core measures of whether Jesus is Lord or not? Talk about it.

2)Would you say that you are generous? Would you like to be more generous or do you think you have it about right?

3) What has been your understanding of tithing? Do you think it is still something we should be doing today? Why or Why not?

4) How would you say you offer time? What have been your experiences of offering time?

5)By offering our time in service, and at least offering a tithe, we are saying with our actions that our time and our money belong to God and not us. Do you feel as though God might be inviting you to do something different to what you are already doing?