This morning, we're going to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, to discuss a practical application involving a coin, specifically the image on it. How many of you would agree that Jesus was an extraordinary teacher? Only Jesus could take a coin and, in the same teaching, encourage, exhort, and rebuke.

Throughout his ministry, he answered thousands of questions about God, the law, and what it means to live a life of genuine faith. But as we approach the end of his earthly ministry, something shifted. The questions directed at Jesus were no longer sincere. They were loaded with hidden agendas and ulterior motives. The religious leaders were trying to trap, embarrass, and discredit him, and ultimately get rid of him because he had attracted too large a following, stirred up too much controversy, and upset far too many people who were comfortable in their positions.

So they began scheming, and in our passage today, that scheming had reached a feverish pitch. Verse 15 says,

"Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words" (Matthew 22:15).

Verse 16 gives us a glimpse of how desperate they were, as they sent their disciples along with the Herodians (Matthew 22:16). That detail is significant because the Pharisees and the Herodians could not stand one another. The Pharisees were deeply religious and resented Roman oppression, while the Herodians were politically liberal and embraced Roman rule. They were natural enemies, yet both felt threatened by Jesus, so they set aside their differences long enough to come against him. That tells you something about how seriously people in power took Jesus. He was not a mild inconvenience. He was a genuine disruption.

But they could never silence him because Jesus never stepped away from who he was or why he came. His identity had been openly declared at his baptism in the Jordan River, when the Father spoke from heaven:

"This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).

Even his enemies understood who he was. Before they tried to trap him, they acknowledged the truth about him, even if they refused to submit to it.

"Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are" (Matthew 22:16).

They said it out loud, then tried to trap him anyway, more concerned with protecting their image and their standing than with walking in righteousness. So instead of humbling themselves before Jesus, they asked him,

"Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" (Matthew 22:17).

If he said yes, he would alienate the Jewish people who despised Roman taxation. If he said no, he could be arrested for treason against Rome. It seemed like the perfectly designed no-win question. But watch what Jesus does. Knowing their evil intent, he said,

"You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax. They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar's,’ they replied. Then he said to them, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's’" (Matthew 22:18-21).

Since the coin bears Caesar's image, it belongs to Caesar. But then Jesus turns the question back on his questioners and on us, saying that what bears God's image belongs to God. They were trapped in their own trap, because we know from the very opening pages of Scripture that:

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

Since we bear his image, we belong to him. This passage is far more than a clever debate about taxes. It becomes one of the most searching and personal questions in all of Scripture: what are we returning to the one whose image we carry?

The apostle Paul addresses this directly in his first letter to the Corinthians, saying plainly:

"You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

When we come to trust Jesus, we have been purchased and redeemed by his blood, and we belong to God. Paul affirms this again in Romans:

"If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord" (Romans 14:8).

We belong to God. Our lives, our breath, our time, our talents, and our resources all come from him and ultimately belong to him. That truth changes everything about how we live.

So what does it actually look like to live as someone who belongs to God? Paul gives us the answer in Romans chapter 12:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" (Romans 12:1).

We offer our entire lives, every part of who we are, as a living sacrifice to God. This is our spiritual act of worship, not just on Sunday mornings during the praise-and-worship set, but in the midst of a world constantly pulling us toward conformity with everything that is not of God. Paul goes on to say:

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

Transformation begins in the mind as it is renewed through the word of God. When we engage the Scriptures every day, our thinking begins to align with God's. The noise of the world grows quieter, and the voice of the Holy Spirit grows clearer. That is not accidental. It is the design of God for every one of his children.

That is also why we need one another. We cannot run this race alone. The writer of Hebrews tells us:

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

We need a community of Spirit-filled believers around us to keep us accountable, encourage us when we are struggling, and draw us back when we start to drift. As we draw closer to the return of Christ, that need will only grow.

Now I want to get very practical, because offering ourselves as a living sacrifice shows up in at least three specific ways: our time, our talent, and our treasure.

Let's start with time. We live in a world that pulls at our attention from every direction, every hour of every day. Yet Scripture is clear that we are to seek God first, in the first moments of our day, on the first day of our week, and in the rhythm of our lives. Every time we choose to open the Word before opening our phones, and every time we gather with the body of Christ when we could be doing something else, we are giving God what is his.

Then there is talent. Every believer who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit has been given a gift, not for personal use, but for building up the body of Christ. Paul writes:

"To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7).

He goes on to describe those gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, and the ability to distinguish between spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). He also notes that God has appointed in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, those with gifts of administration, and those able to help others (1 Corinthians 12:28). Every gift, every calling, and every manifestation of the Spirit is given for the same purpose, to serve the body and advance the kingdom of God.

Paul tells us the body of Christ functions like a human body, and every part is needed:

"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you,' and the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you'" (1 Corinthians 12:21).

When one part is not functioning, the whole body suffers. When you withhold your gift from the church, the church is weakened by your absence. The Holy Spirit does not give gifts to sit buried and dormant. He gives them to be used actively, intentionally, and regularly in the life of the local church and in the world around us.

You were created with intention, gifted by God for a specific purpose and place. As the psalmist said, you have been fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Your ability to serve, lead, teach, encourage, create, or bring order out of chaos is not an accident. It is divinely appointed. And so the question God is asking each of us today is this: what are we doing with what he has entrusted to us?

Most of us know the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, where the master entrusts his property to his servants before going on a journey (Matthew 25:14). Two of them invest what they have been given and produce a return, while the third buries his talent out of fear. When the master returns, he commends the two faithful servants with words that each of us longs to hear one day:

"Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:21).

But to the one who buried his talent out of fear, the master's response is a rebuke, because fear-driven inaction is not humility or wisdom. It is a failure of stewardship. God expects us to take risks for his kingdom, to reinvest the gifts he has freely given us for the good of the people around us and for the growth of his church. When we bury our gifts out of fear or complacency, we miss the joy of watching God multiply what we have placed in his hands, and we miss a divine invitation to participate in something far greater than ourselves.

That brings us to treasure, to our finances, and to the most tangible and often most challenging expression of giving to God what is God's.

The Bible is clear that the tithe, the first ten percent of everything God entrusts to us, belongs to him. This is not a New Testament revelation. It is woven through the fabric of Scripture from the very beginning:

"A tithe of everything from the land belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord" (Leviticus 27:30).

The word holy means set apart. The tithe is not a membership fee, a tip, or a payment in exchange for a blessing. It is set apart for God because it belongs to him in the first place. When we understand that, we realize we are not really giving anything when we tithe. We are simply returning what was already his. Moses instructed the people to set aside a tenth of all their fields produced each year, and in the very next verse, he reveals the purpose of the practice: that when you bring the tithe to the place of worship, you will learn to revere the Lord your God always (Deuteronomy 14:22-23). Another translation puts it this way:

"The purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God first in your lives" (Deuteronomy 14:23, TLB).

That is the heart of it. Every time there is an increase, whether a paycheck or a retirement check, you bring the first portion back to God and declare: " You are first. You are my source. You are my Lord.” That is why God commanded Moses to tell the people:

"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God" (Exodus 23:19).

The first and the best, not the leftovers, not what is convenient after every other bill has been paid.

Now I need to say something that I want you to receive not as condemnation but as a word of loving truth from a God who wants the very best for you. Some of us have been living under the idea that because we are under grace and not under the law, tithing is optional. While it is true that we are not saved by keeping the law, grace is never a license to take what belongs to God and keep it for ourselves. The prophet Malachi records some of the most direct words from God on this subject:

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me" (Malachi 3:8-9).

When we withhold the tithe, we are holding back what belongs to him. But the very next verse contains one of the most extraordinary promises in all of Scripture:

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it" (Malachi 3:10).

God is literally saying, " Give me what is mine, and watch what I will do with it.”

I want to be honest with you because I have been right where some of you are sitting. When I first heard about tithing, my honest reaction was, you have got to be kidding me, ten percent of what little I had? To honor God and put him first, I would have to completely restructure my financial life around him. And the Holy Spirit said, " That is exactly the point.”

"You cannot serve both God and Money" (Luke 16:13).

It does not take faith to give what is left over. It takes genuine, Holy Spirit-empowered faith to give first. Here is what I have learned over the years of walking with God in this. Tithing breaks fear and builds faith. Before I tithed for the first time, I was genuinely afraid, wondering whether there would not be enough. But every time I have been faithful to honor God with the first and the best, I have watched him show up as provider in ways I never could have anticipated or arranged on my own. That is not the prosperity gospel. That is the testimony of someone who has been walking with God long enough to see his faithfulness time and time again.

Tithing also connects your resources to something eternal. When you bring your tithe to the storehouse, the local church, you are not simply helping keep the lights on. You are investing in lives being transformed by the gospel. You are providing for our missionaries in Romania, Bolivia, and Argentina. You are raising the next generation of disciples, turning temporal income into eternal impact. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God" (2 Corinthians 9:11).

God's plan is never for our giving to impoverish us. He promises to bless us so that we can be a blessing to others, and all of it is for his glory.

As we close, let me tell you why I tithe. I do not tithe because I have to. God will still love me if I do not. But I tithe because of who God is and what he has done for me. He forgave me when I did not deserve it. He saved me when I could not save myself. He gave me His Son while I was still living in my sin.

And so, I tithe out of worship. I tithe out of obedience. I tithe because he is worthy of my first and my best. I tithe to stay grounded in the truth that God is my source, not my paycheck. And I tithe because Jesus told me to, and that alone is reason enough. In Matthew chapter 23, he said:

"Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn't leave the more important things undone" (Matthew 23:23, TLB).

If God never did another single thing for me from this day forward, he has already done more than enough for me to spend the rest of my life worshiping him with my time, my talent, and my treasure.

We began this morning with a coin and a question. Whose image is on it? The coin bears Caesar's image, so it belongs to Caesar. But you bear the image of God Almighty. You were created in his image, redeemed by his Son, and filled with his Spirit. You belong to him completely, wholly, and joyfully.

So we give to Caesar what is Caesar's, honoring our earthly responsibilities and fulfilling our civic duties. But we give to God what is God's, including our time, talent, treasure, and whole selves. As Paul says:

"In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship" (Romans 12:1).

That is our response to a God who has given us everything. And one day, when we stand before him, may each of us hear the words we have been longing for:

"Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).

May that be the word spoken over every ear that hears the word of the Lord.

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.